September 2024
In their different expressions, relations between Brazil and Germany will be the theme of an international event on September 26th and 27th in the auditorium of the Museu da Vida Fiocruz. Registrations must be made on the virtual campus website by September 20th, and places are limited.
The 1st Brazil-Germany International Conference: Circulation, Exchange, Contact Zones coincides with the bicentennial of German immigration to Southern Brazil and will address the complex relations between the two countries. Twenty-four researchers from Brazil, Germany, Spain, Israel, and Italy, from 17 different institutions, will come together to discuss topics such as refugees, ecology, vectors, health and the climate crisis, natural and social sciences, mental health and politics, and methodologies involving archives from both sides of the Atlantic.
The research of German naturalists in Brazil since the 18th century, the exchanges between the two countries regarding natural and social sciences, and more contemporary topics, such as ecology and the climate crisis, are among the issues that will be discussed on the first day of the conference. In the opening lecture, professors Stefan Rinke and Karina Kriegesmann from the Free University of Berlin (FU-Berlin) will present a critical edition of Hugo Gensch’s 1908 work The Education of an Indian Child, which deals with the adoption of an indigenous child by a German doctor. The day’s discussion will close with a debate on bilateral research relations in historical archives and the circulation of knowledge.
Wars, refugees, and reparations will be the debate topics on the second day. Avraham Milgram, who worked for over 30 years as a historian at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, will close the event with a lecture on the so-called “Vatican Jews,” refugees who managed to come to Brazil through negotiations with the Holy See.
According to Cristiana Facchinetti, researcher at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC/Fiocruz) and one of the event organizers, the seminar expands the possibilities for debates on social life, the different historical contexts, and the Brazil-Germany relations forged over the past 200 years, giving visibility to research problems arising from the accumulated expertise of the Graduate Program in History of Sciences and Health (PPGHCS) at Fiocruz. “With this ‘circulation, exchange, contact zones,’ we seek to shape quite original debates on these bilateral intersections that, we hope, will provoke and open the field for new investigations,” says Facchinetti.
The conference also aims to build bridges between Brazilian institutions and those of other countries. The event is organized through a partnership between Casa de Oswaldo Cruz and the Latin American Institute of the Free University of Berlin, which is formally launching an agreement with Fiocruz. The University of Vigo, Spain, also recently formalized a deal with FIOCRUZ and is a member of the organizing committee. The event, held in a hybrid format, will also feature live streaming of the panels in Portuguese and English on the COC YouTube channel, and the content will be made available online permanently.
Check out the event’s program:
Sept 26th
09:00
Welcome session
09:30
Opening conference: “Between Humanitarianism and Civilization: A German-Portuguese critical edition of ‘The Education of an Indian Child’ (1908) by Hugo Gensch”
Participants: Prof. Stefan Rinke (FU-Berlin, Germany) and Dr. Karina Kriegesmann (FU-Berlin, Germany)
Moderator: Magali Romero Sá – COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil
11:00
Natural history and natural sciences: Brazil and Germany (18th to 20th centuries)
Participants: Karen Lisboa, USP, Brazil; Miriam Junghans, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sylk Schneider, Weimar, Germany; Thomás Haddad, USP, Brazil;
Moderator: Luiz Montez, UFRJ, Brazil
13:45
From the Cosmos to the Anthropocene: Amazonian sociobiodiversity in Brazil-Germany relations
Participants: André Felipe Cândido da Silva, COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil, Erik Petschelies, UFRJ, Brazil; Gabriele Herzog-Schröder, LMU Munich, Germany; Nelson Sanjad – UFPA/MPEG, Brazil
Moderator: Dominichi Miranda de Sá – COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil
15:45
The archive as a source of historical research – Brazil-Germany relations
Participants: Carlos Reiss, Holocaust Museum of Curitiba, Brazil; Igor Gak – UNIRIO, Brazil; Marcus Vinícius Pereira-Silva, COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil
Moderator: Paulo Elian – COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil
Sept 27th
09:00
Wars in Brazil-Germany relations
Participants: Martin Baumeister, DHI – Rome, Italy; Stefan Rinke, FU-Berlin, Germany; Pedro Muñoz – PUC-Rio, Brazil; Francisco Carlos Texeira da Silva, UFRJ and UFJF, Brazil
Moderator: André Felipe Cândido da Silva, COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil
11:15
Refugees: trajectories between Brazil and Germany
Participants: Cristiana Facchinetti – FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro; Belinda Mandelbaum – USP, Brazil; Maurício Parada – PUC-Rio, Brazil; Karl Schurster – UFPE and University of Vigo, Spain;
Moderator: Gilberto Hochman, COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil
2:00
Conference: “The Jews of the Vatican: The Attempt to Save Catholics – Non-Aryans – from Germany to Brazil through the Vatican (1939-1942)” by Dr. Avraham Milgram.
Moderator: Cristiana Facchinetti, COC/FIOCRUZ, Brazil 3:15 Final Coffee Break
