Current Research Projects
- Mestiz@ as a Travelling Concept
https://www.uni-muenster.de/forschung/profil/ideenlabor/index.html
Project Description: "Mestizo" (métis, mestiço, mesties) was the most prominent legal categorization referring to people of so-called "mixed" ancestry in colonial contexts in the Americas. It played a key role in the organization of social difference and the concept contributed to processes of increasing racialization. The project aims at tracing the origin, dissemination, translation and adaptation of the categorization in the early modern Americas. It studies practices of mestiz@s and their families and processes of belonging and migration in a transimperial approach. In the world of science, there are ideas that go beyond the ordinary – ideas that challenge conventional thought patterns, open new horizons and pave the way for ground-breaking discoveries. However, these ideas often appear to be too risky or unconventional to be immediately pursued through conventional funding channels. In order to initiate and promote such projects at the University of Münster, the “Ideas Lab” was established as a strategic funding measure. - Visual Stereotyping of Religious Groups in the Colonial Philippines, Sub-project EXC 2060 A3-39 at the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics at Münster University (2023 - 2025)
- Gregorio de Robles. An early modern travel report by a Spanish peasant (with Dr. Raquel Gil Montero)
Project description: In this research project, Raquel Gil Montero and myself analyse an unusual travel account from the seventeenth century. Besides the rarity of travel accounts from this period, its singularity resides primarily in the fact that the traveller, Gregorio de Robles, self-identified as a peasant. This exceptional Spaniard travelled dominions of the Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch empires in America and Europe, and even briefly touched Southern Africa.
Completed Research Projects
- Konstruktionsprozesse des ‚Ethnischen‘ in Michoacán, Mexiko und Cajamarca, Peru. Translokale Positionierungen indigener Migrant_innen unter der Kolonialherrschaft. Financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
- UoC Forum Ethnicity as a Political Ressource. Financed by Köln University in the framework of its Excellence Initiative.
- Außenkontakte des taraskischen Staates in Westmexiko. Financed by Gerda Henkel Foundation