Dialogues Across World Regions: The 2025/26 Winter Semester HCIAS Colloquium

Following the success of the 2025 Summer Semester HCIAS Colloquium and its focus on “Dialogues across World Regions”, the 2025/26 Winter Semester edition of the HCIAS Colloquium returned to continue fostering exchanges between Ibero-America and other world regions by bringing together researchers from various fields, disciplines, and nationalities.

By inviting colleagues from Heidelberg University’s South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA), and Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS) and hosting scholars from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil and the University of Texas (UT) at Austin in the US, the HCIAS Colloquium moved beyond “region-specific” research pertaining to Ibero-America and toward addressing the intrinsic commonalities of various regions in a globalized world.

The Winter Semester HCIAS Colloquium comprised six in-person sessions focused on a broad range of topics, from the socio-ecological sacrifice zones of Brazil’s lithium mining industry and the carceral history of the Texas sugar industry to the visual power of Mao Zedong as a global political icon and the trans-regional news networks of 19th-century East Asia. Although diverse in disciplinary approaches and world regions in focus, a through-line that connects the research presented during this semester is the pervasiveness of the colonial logic, on both historical and current events, highlighting the relevance of incorporating decolonial approaches to research.

The Colloquium opened on October 14 with guest lecturer Prof. Dr. Klemens Laschefski (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, UFMG) discussing “The victim territories of CO₂ neutrality for electric cars in Brazil”, which addressed the consequences of land grabs at the starting point of the automotive supply chains

of electric and non-electric vehicles. Dr. Laschefski focused his presentation on the colonization drive in previously unexploited indigenous territories in the Brazilian savannah that have been largely ignored in international climate debates.

Then, on October 21, also guest lecturer Dr. Ashanté Reese (University of Texas at Austin, UT) delivered the presentation “The City That Sugar Built: Prisons, Agriculture, and the Making of Southeast Texas”, which explores sugar as an element that has captured bodies, land and imaginations through the study of the discovery of prisoner’s graves in Sugarland, Texas. By analysing media reports, archaeological evidence, and archival records, Dr. Reese interrogated how the Texas sugar industry used convict labour to build its wealth; thus essentially replacing slavery with a prison-to-plantation exploitation system.

On November 5, Dr. Philip Zehmisch (South Asia Institute, SAI) talked about “Rethinking regions: Cultural Formations and Circulation through and across Cultural Boundaries”. In his presentation, Dr. Zehmisch addressed the inherent tension between the necessity for locally grounded, contextualized research and the ongoing critique of traditional regional silos in contemporary Area Studies. The lecture demonstrated how examining the crossing of linguistic and traditional borders adds necessary complexity to our understanding of the local, effectively bridging the gap between regional particularity and global connectivity.

Moreover, on November 18, Dr. Andreas Eichleter (Center for East Asian Studies, ZO) delivered the presentation “More than local news – The Treaty Port Press of 19th century East Asia as a regional and global medium”, which discussed how 19th-century Western imperialism introduced foreign-language newspapers to East Asian ports like Shanghai and Yokohama that served as essential tools for Western residents to maintain communication. His lecture analysed how these publications evolved into a sophisticated regional network that facilitated the rapid exchange of information across far-flung expatriate communities and illustrated how these local “treaty port” papers integrated into an emerging global news network that bridged East Asia with Europe and the Americas.

PD Dr. Fernando Nina (HCIAS and Romanisches Seminar) discussed “Decolonial feminism in Latin American essays: Gloria Anzaldúa, Lélia Gonzáles, and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui” on December 16. Dr. Nina examined the works of several decolonial Latin American essayists whose writing styles combine autobiographical theoretical, and political perspectives that question colonial power structures and critically undermine hegemonic discourses.

The closing lecture of the 2025/26 Winter Semester HCIAS Colloquium was delivered by Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler (Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies, CATS), who discussed “How to read Iconic Mao – A Biography in Images”. Her talk discussed how images of Mao, both official portraits and artistic iterations and reinterpretations, have been read in different times and by different people, thus examining how that political figure lives in people’s minds and how that has affected and animated others.

The Winter Semester 2025/26 edition of the HCIAS Colloquium underpinned the series’ commitment to intellectual depth, transregional exchange, and academic rigor. By integrating East Asian research foci into its conversations, the colloquium lived up to its focus on “Dialogues Across World Regions”, thus demonstrating that such a framework is useful to address the complex, yet interconnected challenges of our time.

The HCIAS Colloquium will continue into the Summer Semester 2026; information regarding the program and lineup of guest speakers can be found here. We look forward to another semester of dynamic exchanges connecting the countries integrating the Ibero-American region, and we will continue to share these insights through our recaps here on the HCIAS Blog.

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Luis Pesce is a doctoral researcher in political science and member of the research group “Communication and Society in Ibero-America” at the HCIAS, where he researches topics of violence against journalists and communicators in Mexico.

Mariel Elizondo Romo is a doctoral researcher in sociolinguistics and member of both the research group “Communication and Society in Ibero-America” and the Observatory of Spanish in Europe at the HCIAS. She researches return migration and Spanish as a heritage language in Romania.

Luis Pesce

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Mariel Elizondo Romo

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