Georg Walter Wink

Short presentation

Associate Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. Brazil has been the focus of my education and research activities since my undergraduate studies. I have concentrated on the cultural and social history of Brazil in texts and contexts, always using an interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, social studies, cultural studies and literary studies. Specific subjects I have examined are the regime-critical role of the alternative press during the military dictatorship (master’s thesis) and the discursive constructions of collective identity and places of remembrance in essays, literature and institutional nation-building texts (doctoral dissertation). During my postdoctoral research I looked at south-south cultural relations, especially the transfers of ideas between Latin America and South Asia and the creation of a southern epistemology through these intellectual relations.

Head of Centre for Latin American Studies.

Currently I am working in the following field and on the following topics:

General interests: Cultural and social history of Brazil in texts and contexts (especially narratives of national identity); Crisis of Democracy in Brazil (e.g., Corruption, “Impeachment”, Politicization of Justice, Political System, Political and Macroeconomic Reforms); Inequality and Race Relations (Social Policies, especially Affirmative Action Policies); Brazil’s new role as a Global Player (e.g., Brazil’s relations to Africa); Postcolonial and Decolonial Cultural Theory (e.g., South-South Epistemologies, Cultural Anthropophagy, Transculturality and Migration), Intercultural Communication Theory and Practice; Brazilian Mass Media (oligopoly structures, discourses and political role); Contemporary Brazilian Literatures; Translation in Theory and Practice (especially comics and poetry).

Concluded Projects: Postdoctoral research on Migrant Literature as an Expression of Transculturality; Postdoctoral research "Sur/South – América Latina – India” on intellectual relations and the transferral of ideas between Latin America and South Asia South-South cultural relations (intellectual relations and transfers of ideas between Latin America and South Asia); Joint research project in collaboration with the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (coordinator) "When Inclusion Masks Exclusion: Disempowerment and Depoliticization of Minority Issues through 'Harmonizing' Discourses" (external funding by the International Network Programme 2014 of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science) published as special issue in Brasiliana – Journal for Brazilian Studies; Research project on cultural relations Brazil-Africa "Pioneers of a South-South Dialogue: The Cultural Periodical Sul (1948–57) in Florianópolis, Brazil"; Joint research in collaboration with the University of Brasília (co-coordinator) about literature, genre and its relations to other arts like film and music, with a special focus on popular literature or so called “sub”-literature, concluded by organizing in Copenhagen the International Conference Contrabandos literários, resistências epistêmicas.

Current projects: Joint research project in collaboration with the State University of Rio de Janeiro (co-coordinator) about discourses of mass media, social media and mobilisation of social movements; Joint research project in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at Oslo Metropolitan University and the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) about actors, means and objectives of political and social right-wing reaction in Brazil.

CV

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

Since 02/2018
Director of the Centre for Latin American Studies                                              

Since 07/2017
Course coordinator of the Undergraduate and Graduate Program in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies

Since 07/2013
Associate Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies.

2010-2013
Assistant Professor of Latin American Cultures (special area Brazil) at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. 

2010
Lecturer in Brazilian Studies at Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Romance Languages and Literature, Department of Spanish and Latin-American Cultural Studies.

2008–2009
Visiting Professor and Reader at the Faculty of Letters, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

2006–2008
Research and Teaching Assistant at Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Romance Languages and Literature, Department of Spanish and Latin-American Cultural Studies and in the supplementary module for Regional Studies – Latin America (special area Brazil).

2004–2005
PhD Fellow in the doctoral program for Comparative Literature, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Brazilian government grant from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).

2002–2003
Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Letters, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

GUEST LECTURESHIP

08/2012
Visiting Professor in Brazilian Studies at University Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India and Jadavpur University in Calcutta, India.

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

2010–2013
Postdoctoral research (habilitation project) on cultural and epistemological relations within the Global South within the international network “Cultural Flows: India –Latin America”, Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin.

2009
Postdoctoral research (academic fellowship from the Federal State of Minas Gerais Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais - FAPEMIG) on Intercultural Communication and transculturality in immigrant communities, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

2004–2008
Doctoral research at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Faculty for Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Language and Culture in Germersheim.

2004–2008
Doctoral dissertation entitled “Brazil as an Imagined Community? A Cultural Studies Perspective on the Narration of Brazil from Empire to Nation in Contrast with Latin America”. The thesis was awarded the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Prize.
(Also conferred the title of Doutor em Letras: Estudos Literários by Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in August 2009.)

2001–2003
Additional master’s program in German as a Foreign Language at Humboldt Universität Berlin.

1997–2001
Master in Latin American Studies, Sociology and Economics at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.
Master thesis entitled “Alternative Press in Brazil (1964–82): Self-perception and Cultural Expression as Revealed by the Satirical Periodical O Pasquim”.

1997–1998
Exchange year at the Faculty of Literary Studies and Linguistics, Universidade Federal de Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Brazil.

1994–1997
BA in Latin American Studies, Sociology and Economics at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin.
 

OTHER RELEVANT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

2006–2008
Collaborating on the research project “A Critique of Academic Writing Styles during Five Centuries”, published as Rehrmann, N (ed.) 2011. Schlechter Stil! Sprachkritik aus fünf Jahrhunderten. Lambert Schneider, Darmstadt.

2000
Four-month research fellowship at Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazil.

1996
Three-month academic exchange to Belém, Brazil to conduct a sociological field study of the living and working conditions of fishers on Jutuba Island in the Amazon Delta. Funded by the DAAD and the Volkswagen Foundation, in cooperation with Universidade Federal de Pará (UFPA) in Belém, Brazil.

1995
Three-month sociological field study at an agricultural co-op near Somoto, Nicaragua.

RESEARCH GROUP MEMBERSHIPS

Forschungszentrum Brasilien / Centro de Pesquisas Brasileiras (FZB) / Brazil Research Center at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, since February 2010.

Grupo de Estudos em Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea (GELBC) at Universidade de Brasília, since January 2012.

BRASA - Brazilian Studies Association, since May 2013.

Deutscher Lusitanistenverband (DLV), since August 2007.

Forschungsverbund Lateinamerika Berlin-Brandenburg (ForLaBB), since September 2010.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Lateinamerikaforschung / German Association for Research on Latin America (ADLAF), since January 2004.

RESEARCH COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP

Member of the academic advisory council for ADLAF’s working group on Brazil, since April 2012.

 PARTICIPATION IN ORGANIZATION OF SEMINARS, LECTURE SERIES AND SYMPOSIA

Panel Chair, “Fluxos musicais: canção no cinema brasileiro e canção brasileira no cinema (anos 30-50)”, BRASA XIV Conference, PUC-Rio 25–28 July 2018.

Organizer, “Affirmative Action Revisited: Race-related Discourses and Policies in Contemporary Brazil”, University of Copenhagen, 14–15 December 2015.

Organizer, “Traversing Prevailing Winds: Cultural Relations between Brazil and Africa”, University of Copenhagen, 30 October 2015.

Co-organizer, “Commemorating the Portuguese Revolution 40 years on: Politics, Policies and Discourse in Evolving Democracies – Portugal, Spain and Brazil”, University of Copenhagen, 25 April 2014.

Panel Chair, “Multiperspektivische Weltbetrachtungen: Re-Lektüren und Neubestimmungen lateinamerikanischer Essays” (“Multiperspective Views on the World: Re-lecture and Redefinition of Latin American Essays”). XXXIII. Deutscher Romanistentag, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, 22–25 September 2013.

Co-organizer and co-chair, “Colóquio Internacional sobre Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea: Traduções e Intermediações” (“International Colloquium on Contemporary Brazilian Literature: Translation and Intermediation”), Université Paris-Sorbonne IV and Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 7–8 and 11–12 March 2013.

Contributed to development of the project proposal “Entgangenes Wissen. Verständigungswissen Süd-Süd: Indien – Lateinamerika” (“Evaded Epistemologies. South-South Communicative knowledge: India – Latin America”). Project in partnership with the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, submitted to the Volkswagen Foundation’s Key Issues for Academia and Society funding initiative on 30 May 2012.

Co-conducted workshops for young researchers in literary studies entitled “Novas Vozes – Junge Literatur aus Brasilien” (“Novas Vozes – Young Literature from Brazil”), Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 8–10 December 2011.

Co-organizer, international conference entitled “Sur / South: New Passages to India / Nuevos Pasajes a la India. América Latina – India. Literature and Culture”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, held at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 6–8 October 2011.

Co-organizer, interdisciplinary lecture series entitled “Amazonien: Ein transregionaler Kulturraum im historischen Wandel” (“Amazonia: A transregional space in historic transition”), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, held at the Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, fall semester 2010.

EDITORING

Editorial Council member of the book series "Estudos Brasileiros" at Anthem Press

Member of the Editorial Board of Diálogos Latinoamericanos, since March 2018

Editorial board member of the journal Iberoromania, since May 2016

Section editor of Revista de Estudos de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea, since September 2016

Managing editor of the journal Iberoromania, September 2011–August 2013.

Teaching

Office hours: Tuesday 13-14