Skip to content

The Pluriverse: Challenges of Post- Developmentalist Thought for Global South Studies

Explore the concept of Pluriverse and Post Colonial Theory through Literature, Social Science, Art, Media and Political Activism in South Global contexts

← Back to courses
CIVIS focus area
Society, culture, heritage
Open to
  • Bachelor's
  • Master's
  • Phd
Field of studies
  • Art, Design and Media
  • Social Science and humanities
  • Environmental sciences, Urbanism, Geography
Type
  • Short-term
  • CIVIS Hub 2
Course dates
26-30 September 2022

The multiple crises created by the current dynamics of globalization have called the concepts such as development, progress, and modernization into question. In the face of such a scenario, pluriversal thinking offers a radical "alternative for thinking alternatives" to Western hegemony (Boaventura de Sousa Santos: 2014).
Towards this aim, the 2022 CIVIS School "North-South Encounters" encourages to engage in the ongoing debates in academia, activism, and cultural production that focus on the Pluriverse as a methodological and theoretical framework that has emerged in the context of post-developmentalist thought and epistemologies of the South.

Looking for “a world into which many worlds fit”, we follow Arturo Escobar’s invitation to develop a capacity to design alternative worlds that challenge globalization’s drive to homogenize what is diverse in principle. Thus, we take up the provoking impetus of new political ontologies, indigenous notions of the good living and calls for cognitive justice.
In accordance with the way which Global South studies address issues of globalization in a comparative and transdisciplinary perspective, the CIVIS school will combine theoretical debates with scholars from the CIVIS network (from Europe and Africa), alongside colleagues from Asia-Pacific and Latin America, with a dialogue between academia, art, and political activism.

Main topics addressed

  • Temporalities and Epistemologies of the Global South
  • Territoriality and Human rights
  • Feminism and Activism in the Global South
  • Environmental Humanities

Learning outcomes

  • Be in contact with different perspectives of critical thinking in Humanities
  • Learn about Political activism in Global South contexts
  • Be able to understand the Pluriverse concept and how it can be used in Post Developmentalist theories
Dates: 26-30 September 2022 CIVIS scholarships: 20
Format: Physical Contact hours: 30
Location: Tübingen, Germany Individual workload: 30 hours
Language: English, French, Spanish (B2) ECTS: 6*
Host University: University of Tübingen Contact: civissummerschoolgs@romanistik.uni-tuebingen.de

* The recognition of ECTS depends on your home university. 

Schedule

The course is organised into 19 sessions of 1:30 (maximum 4 sessions/day from 08:30 to 18:00).

Requirements

This CIVIS course is open to Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD students at one of CIVIS member universities.

Applicants should be students or researchers in Social science and Humanities including Global South Studies, African Studies, Latin American Studies, History, Media Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, and Anthropology.

The programme has a multilingual approach with English being the main language of instruction, combined with some interventions in French and Spanish.

Working knowledge in English is necessary, and working knowledge in French or Spanish is strongly recommended.

Application process

Participants are accepted from a wide range of disciplines within Humanities and Social Sciences.

Applicants should send their CV, a transcript of records and a letter of motivation to civissummerschoolgs@romanistik.uni-tuebingen.de by 3 July 2022.

Although we need the linguistic diversity of Global South Studies, a certain proficiency in English is recommended.

Selected students will be notified on 10 July 2022.

Assessment

  • Students hand in short essays on proposed readings (to be submitted prior to summer school) (3 ECTS).
  • They can in addition hand in a long essay on one of the themes afterwards to get supplementary 3 ECTS.

General Eligibility Criteria for CIVIS Courses

Applicants need to be enrolled at their home university in order to be eligible for selection and participation.  If uncertain about your status at your home university (part-time or exchange students etc) please check with your home university’s website or International Office. 

Applicants who will be receiving other Erasmus funds for the duration of the course are not entitled to funding. Participation in the course may still be possible under “zero-grant” status, but applicants should contact their home university in order to confirm this. 

A list of links and contacts for each university can be found in this Q&A.

GDPR Consent

The CIVIS alliance and its member universities will treat the information you provide with respect. Please refer to our privacy policy for more information on our privacy practices. By applying to this course you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

  • Susanne Goumegou (Romance Philology / University of Tübingen): Romance Philology and Literature: Global South Studies - Focus on Francophone Literatures in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Sebastian Thies (Romance Philology / University of Tübingen): Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies, Film and Media of Latin America, Global South Studies, Ethnic Studies
  • Riccarda Flemmer (University of Tübingen): Focus on Indigenous Rights, Environment Law, Critical Studies upon Development, and Empirical work on Latin America and Amazon.
  • Bacary Sarr (Faculty of literature and human sciences, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal): Directeur des études de l'Institut Supérieur des Arts et des Cultures(ISAC)/UCAD; comparative literary studies, cultural studies
  • Isaline Bergamaschi (Department of Political Science and REPI / Université libre de Bruxelles): Sociology of international development, intervention in Mali and South-South cooperation, globalisation and International Political Economy
  • René Ramírez (Universidad Autónomade México): Economista. Focus on Political Socioecology, ways of knowledge and "buen vivir" Post developmentalist Theories and Democracy    
  • Fatoumata Keita (Université des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Bamako, Mali): Malian writer of novels, poetry, and essays. Focus on contemporary Malian society, both urban and rural.
  • Jhonny Hendrix, Afro-Colombian filmmaker, and activist. Director of several films, music videos, documentaries, and short films. His films include "Chocó", "Candelaria" and "Saudó".
  • Angela Iranzo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid): Focus on International Relations; Migration, Diasporas, and Peace Geographies; Human Trafficking; Spiritualities and Post-secular Political Practices.
  • Patricia Gualinga (Activist, and human rights defender from the Amazon region of Ecuador).
  • Esteban Morera ( University of Tübingen) is the coordinator of the research cooperation at the Brasilien Zentrum of the University of Tübingen. His research focuses on temporalities in political communication.
  • Thaïs Machado-Borges (Stockholm University) has a PhD and an Associate Professor’s degree (docent, in Swedish) in Social Anthropology. She is a Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies and since January 2022, Director of the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies, at Stockholm University. Machado-Borges has conducted several years of fieldwork in southeastern Brazil and researched topics such as popular culture (telenovelas), class and consumption, bodily grooming and modification, overconsumption, and the meanings of waste.  She is the principal investigator of an ongoing interdisciplinary research project entitled “Gender Troubled? Cultural Wars on Sexuality, Gender, Religion, and Politics in Contemporary Brazil.”
  • Dilip Menon (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) is a Professor of History at, the Department of International Relations and Director of, the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, University of the Witwatersrand. Dilip does research in World Literatures, Cultural History, and Cultural Anthropology. His current project is on thinking about the historical imagination in South Asia.
  • Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia University)- TBC is currently a  professor at Columbia University. His work is focused on the history of logic and mathematics, epistemology, the tradition of philosophy in the Islamic world, identity formation, and African literature and philosophies.
  • Renata de Sá Gonçalves (Universidade Federal Fluminense) is currently a professor and vice director at the Department of Anthropology of Universidade Federal Fluminense. Has worked mainly with Brazilian social thought, urban anthropology, ritual, and symbolism, cultural policies, education, management, and preservation of cultural heritage.
  • Roberto Robalinho (Universidade Federal Fluminense) is a Post Doctoral Student in Communication at the University of Tübingen where he develops research in the international cooperation project "Discomforting Territories: images, narratives, and objects of the Global South". Works with the relationship between image, politics, and social contexts, and is currently developing his first feature film that addresses the social and symbolic geography of the hinterland of Guimarães Rosa.
  • Alain S. Agnessan (UFHB Abidjan) currently is a Doctoral student, who works with philosophy, literature, film, and post-colonial theory.
  • Cristopher Coñoman Moreno Mapuche is a rapper musician

Staff

  • Ana Clara Alves de Oliveira (Ph.D. Candidate UFF/UT): Organiser

Documents