Research centers

RESEARCH CENTERS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES

FRANCE


LAIOS /IIAC: UMR 8177, CNRS/EHESS, Laboratoire d’anthropologie des institutions et des organisations sociales (LAIOS, équipe de l’Institut interdisciplinaire d’anthropologie du contemporain)

The Laboratory for the Anthropology of Institutions and Social Organizations was founded, in 1995, by CNRS. Now integrated as a research Center of the EHESS, within the IIAC (Interdisciplinary Institute for the Anthropology of Contemporaneity, UMR 8177), LAIOS is leading research in political anthropology, particularly on globalization and transnational organizations. It also develops researches on visual and creative arts and politics. It provides a dynamic scientific environment, which attracts doctoral students in anthropology and sociology who want to confront themselves with studying complex societies, contemporaneous issues and challenging topics. LAIOS trains about 60 doctoral students, and receive regularly post-docs and visiting professors. Since 2010, and the achievement of the ERC research project, SOGIP, on the Scales of governance and Indigenous Peoples, the monthly seminar organized by Irene Bellier attracts an average of 30 people per session, often coming from other universities than EHESS. It has contributed to establish within EHESS a research focus on Indigenous Peoples rights and political issues (at large), a unique center of such scope in Paris. Irene Bellier supervises several Phd students whose research includes issues of indigenous peoples’s rights : women’ rights, cultural rights, consultation rights in Colombia; spatial kustice in Ecuador; food rights in Peru ; civil and political rights in Chile ; development rights and energy issues in Brazil and in Kenya.

Members: Irène Bellier; Sofia Cevallos; Leslie Cloud; Verónica González González; Viviana López Toro; Emmanuelle Ricaud Oneto

– CREDA

Le Centre de recherche et de documentation des Amériques – CREDA, unité mixte de recherche CNRS / Université Sorbonne nouvelle Paris 3 (UMR 7227) comprend 30 chercheurs titulaires et près de 90 doctorants. Son champ de recherche inclut depuis près de trois décennies les questions autochtones/ « indigènes » et amérindiennes, en sociologie, en histoire, en sciences politiques ou en géographie. Le CREDA est engagé dans de nombreux projets de recherche financés par l’ANR ou par divers bailleurs externes. On peut notamment citer le projet de World Atlas of Indigenous Peoples and Territories (WAIPT), financé dans le cadre du dispositif PICRI de la région Ile de France, dont l’objectif était de produire une base de données mondiale des territoires autochtones, aujourd’hui divulguée par la plateforme Landmark (www.landmarkmap.org). L’intérêt thématique du CREDA pour les questions autochtones est donc fort. Sa participation au GDRI sera centrée autour de l’analyse des questions territoriales incluse dans le thème 3 Indigenous peoples, development, spatial and environmental justice, tant en termes de gestion et de gouvernance qu’en termes d’impact dans les espaces concernés.

Members: Fabrice Dubertret; François-Michel Le Tourneau

– PASSAGES : CNRS, Université de Bordeaux-Montaigne et al., UMR 5319

The UMR PASSAGES is a new joint research unit (UMR 5319), based on two campuses: Bordeaux and Pau. It focuses its project on “the reconfigurations of spatialities and global changes”, understood as a dialectical relationship and studied through the prism of three focal points: transition, mediation and translation/ representation. It builds on the four fields of expertise of its members – territory and territoriality; the environment from a natural, but also social and political point of view; the production of social norms through the production of space; the body and the subject – to conduct its scientific program. With 116 permanent members and 82 PhD students PASSAGES stands out as strongly pluri-disciplinary: geographers, planners, landscape and urban architects, sociologists, anthropologists, and economists work together on a daily basis. The unit is a cross-road of viewpoints, experiences, knowledge and interpretations. Plusieurs chercheurs de l’UMR s’intéressent en particulier aux reconfigurations spatiales à l’œuvre en contexte autochtone en Amérique du Nord et du Sud.

Members: Béatrice Collignon; Irène Hirt

CANADA

– RESEAU DIALOG, ABORIGINAL PEOPLES RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE NETWORK (DIALOG), MONTREAL

Le réseau DIALOG est ancré à l’Institut national de la recherche scientifique (Université du Québec), se déploie au Canada et à l’échelle internationale. En 2016, il regroupe plus de 50 chercheurs de 28 universités à travers le monde, 25 étudiants et 25 représentants d’organisations et de communautés autochtones. DIALOG compte plusieurs partenaires institutionnels : l’Université Concordia, l’UQAM, l’UQAT, l’Un. Laval, University of Alberta, l’Assemblée des Premières Nations du Québec et du Labrador, l’Association des Femmes Autochtones du Québec; le Regroupement des Centres d’amitié autochtone du Québec, le Centre d’amitié autochtone de Val-d’Or, l’Institut Tshakapesh, le Conseil tribal Mamuitun, la Société de développement des Naskapis. DIALOG compte aussi plusieurs partenaires universitaires et autochtones au Canada anglais, au Mexique et en Nouvelle-Zélande. DIALOG facilite et soutient les occasions de rencontre, d’échange, de partage, de ressourcement et de coproduction des connaissances entre le milieu universitaire et le milieu autochtone; il constitue un levier de développement et d’approfondissement des connaissances pour ses membres et ses partenaires. Le réseau organise chaque année plusieurs activités d’animation scientifique et de réseautage et encourage la diffusion des travaux de ses chercheurs et de leurs étudiants dans les grands colloques nationaux et internationaux. En matière de recherche, il favorise la convergence, la synergie, l’échange et le partage entre disciplines et traditions de recherche diversifiées ce qui conduit à identifier des pistes de solution à des phénomènes complexes et multifactoriels et donne lieu à de nouveaux projets de recherche conjoints.

Le programme de formation de l’Université nomade existe depuis 2007. L’Université nomade favorise le partage des savoirs, des compétences et des apprentissages entre le milieu universitaire et le milieu autochtone. DIALOG y propose des enseignements intensifs (échelonnés sur cinq ou six jours consécutifs), interactifs et dynamiques favorisant le déploiement d’une approche éthique, réflexive et intégrée en regard des questions autochtones. Les équipes de formation sont composées des chercheurs, des étudiants, des collaborateurs et des partenaires autochtones de DIALOG; elles reflètent la collaboration interinstitutionnelle, interdisciplinaire et interculturelle qui caractérise ce réseau. Site web : http://www.reseaudialog.ca

Members: Suzy Basile; Natasha Blanchet-Cohen; Édith Cloutier; Caroline Desbiens; Martina Thora Herrmann; Nathalie Kermoal; Jacques Kurtness; Jean Leclair; Carole Levesque; Suzanne Manningham; Martin Papillon; Daniel Salée; Karine Vanthuyne

– CHAIRE DE RECHERCHE DU CANADA SUR LA DIVERSITÉ JURIDIQUE ET LES PEUPLES AUTOCHTONES, OTTAWA

The Canada Research Chair on Legal Diversity and Indigenous Peoples is a tier 1 chair based at the faculty of law of the University of Ottawa. It is dedicated to research on the relationships and interactions between indigenous and western legal systems. It seeks to identify innovative mechanisms for the coordination of such legal systems so as to promote effective and legitimate social regulation for indigenous peoples living in postcolonial states. The Chair’s specific objectives are to find ways of resolving normative tensions and conflicts through a dialogue between legal traditions, to further a better understanding of current developments in indigenous legal systems and to assess the impact of such developments on the rule of law as a principle of democratic governance promoted by the international community. The Chair will be a full partner in the proposed GDRI. In addition to its role in the scientific leadership within theme one, it will provide a substantial financial contribution to cover the cost of its team’s participation in meetings or events held through the RTI.

Members: François Féral;, Mylène Jaccoud; Raphael Mapou; Ghislain Otis; Marie Eve Sylvestre

– LE LABORATOIRE DE CARTOGRAPHIE ETHNOGRAPHIQUE, UNIVERSITE DE VICTORIA

UVic’s Ethnographic Mapping Lab (http://ethnographicmapping.uvic.ca) was founded to create a space for indigenous communities and university researchers to collaborate on projects and innovate in theoretically sophisticated cartographic approaches. The Lab’s central goal is highly aligned with Theme 3 “Indigenous peoples, Development, Spatial and Environmental Justice” objectives by grappling with the practical problem of implementing socially and politically powerful mapping initiatives which can effectively visualize and communicate indigenous peoples’ knowledge and experience of the land. By employing cutting-edge immersive, networked, multimedia cartographic systems, the research responds to the critique that the dots and lines of conventional ethnographic mapping reduces and essentializes indigenous territoriality and senses of place. Thom’s research through the lab has been supported by substantive research funding by Google and the Canadian Social Science Humanities Research Council (2014-2016). He is also research axis leader for Community Mapping with the Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives (http://cicada.world/research/themes/community-mapping/) (McGill U), and with the Canadian Conservation in Global Context (CCGC) project (U Guelph) (http://www.ccgc-iaa.ca/our-team).

Member: Brian Thom

– Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les territoires de l’extractivisme (GRITE), Université d’Ottawa

L’objectif du Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les territoires de l’extractivisme (GRITE) est de développer une programmation de recherche commune et socialement pertinente sur ces questions. Il est composé d’une équipe interdisciplinaire de professeur-e-s et d’étudiant-e-s de la Faculté des sciences sociales (anthropologie, études de développement et mondialisation, sciences politiques et sociologie) et de la Faculté de droit dont les champs d’intérêt respectifs touchent transversalement le domaine des enjeux socio-environnementaux de l’industrie extractive.

Member: Karine Vanthuyne

NORWAY

Attached to the University of Tromsø, two centers are working in close cooperation on the issues of interests for JUSTIP: SESAM and ISA/SOA

– SESAM : THE SENTER FOR SAMISKE STUDIER / CENTRE FOR SAMI STUDIES

The aim of Sesam is to strengthen multidisciplinary research in Sami and indigenous issues at the University of Tromsø. More specifically, Sesam contributes to increased research and dissemination within topics related to Sami and indigenous peoples and strengthens the profiling of, and recruitment to, studies focusing on Sami languages, culture, society and indigenous peoples’ rights and conditions. Furthermore, the Centre’s activities shall contribute to the strengthening of Sami languages in an academic context as well as to the development of collaboration with Sami educational and research institutions. The Centre also assists the leadership of the University and the faculty in Sami and indigenous issues. Sesam is responsible for two international master program: a two-year full-time Master’s Programme in Indigenous Studies (MIS) and the joint Master’s program Governance and Entrepreneurship in Northern and Indigenous Areas (GENI) with a three years duration, and flexible, partly online study. The thematic focus of MIS is the emergence of the international indigenous movement, the historical experiences and contemporary context that indigenous people experience across the globe. GENI is a study for students interested in comparing governance challenges in a circumpolar context.

Members: Else Grete Broderstad; Jonathan Crossen

– The Institute for Archaeology and Social Anthropology (ISA) has a general focus on “the North” and on indigenous peoples, approaching these within a larger comparative framework with particular focus on north / south and local / global relations. Studies of Sami relations, past and present, have a central position in the institute. The division of Social Anthropology (SOA), the main partner for the proposed network, has a scientific profile focusing on two major areas: 1) Studies of ethnicity and indigenous peoples and relations between the state and minorities, emphasizing (among other things) human rights; 2) Studies of social and cultural change processes with an emphasis on social categorization and identity relationships, tradition and modernity, and globalization processes. SOA also houses the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Comparative Indigeneity (Komparativ Urfoksforskning, or KURF). Leader of IAS is Asgeir Svestad: asgeir.svestad@uit.no

Also at UiT, the Forum for Develpment Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples (the Forum) active from 2000 – Jan 2016, provided a meeting place where academics, indigenous leaders and activists, government representatives and development actors could meet and exchange information and strategies about issues confronting indigenous peoples and the support that was needed. This Forum is currently transitioning into a nordic network for indigenous advocacy. UiT will be the research centre for this network.

Members: Jennifer Hays; Sidsel Saugestad

SPAIN

– THE PEDRO ARRUPE INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RIGHTS, BILBAO, UNIVERSITY OF DEUSTO (IPADH) : organizes since 2000 the UNFellowship Programme for Indigenous Leaders coming from South America (with the sponsorship of the Basque Government). Every year, 10 indigenous leaders come to Deusto to follow a tailor-made training on indigenous peoples’ rights (from April to the end of June). After the basic training, they go to the UN headquarters in Geneva to deepen their practice and to participate in the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP).

The Institute participates to the European Master in Human Rights and Democratization (EMA, Venice, Italy). Every year, 90 students from all over the world are selected to do this Master. Some of them decide to do their dissertation on indigenous peoples’ rights. The EMA is organized by a Consortium of 41 European Universities. As well, a Erasmus Mundus Human Rights Policy and Practice (HRPP), Master Programme is jointly organized by the University of Roehampton (London, UK), the University of Gotemborg (Sweden), and the University of Deusto. The semester organized by Deusto (from February to July) is focused on indigenous peoples’ rights. This center also develop a Doctoral Programme on Human Rights, in 2016, at least 3 PhD focused on indigenous peoples’ rights.

The Institute of Human Rights is a founding member of the Multidisciplinary Network of Researchers on Indigenous Peoples (EMPI) created in 2010. It has two major periodical publications on human rights issues: Cuadernos Deusto de Derechos Humanos (published in Spanish since 1997), and Yearbook on Humanitarian Action and Human Rights (published in English and Spanish since 2004).

Members: Felipe Gómez Isa; Davinia Gómez SánchezGorka Urrutia; Asier Martínez de Bringas 

BRASIL

– CES-AL – CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS AMERICA LATICA, UNIVERSIDAD FEDERAL DE GOIAS

Le programme de Pós-graduação en droit agraire de l’université fédérale de Goia, UFG, est un espace académique de réflexion sur le droit, qui a pour objectif de former et perfectionner les professionnels de l’enseignement et de la recherche des institutions supérieures pour la région Centre-Est du Brésil, dans une perspective plus large latino-américaine et globale. Il développe deux lignes de recherches sur les fondements et les institutions juridiques de la possession et de la propriété, et sur le droit agro- alimentaire, les territoires et le développement. Le CES est une institution de recherche de droit civil, sans but lucratif, issu du dialogue avec les chercheurs du CES-Coimbra, de UFMG (Minas Gerais- Brasil) et d’autres lieux en Amérique latine. Parmi les objectifs du CES figure le dialogue entre chercheurs de différentes disciplines et nationalités pour répondre à l’enjeu de développer des paradigmes théoriques, méthodologiques, analytiques et épistémologiques compatibles avec la diversité socio-culturelle, économique et politique de l’Amérique latine. Il s’engage dans des initiatives conjointes avec d’autres centres latino-américains et des perspectives de recherches sud-sud. Dernièrement, le CES-AL a développé et coordonné des projets de recherche autour d’un « Observatoire de la justice au Brésil » et du « nouveau constitutionnalisme latino-américain.

Members: Lilian Cristina Bernardo Gomes; Marjorie Correa Marona 

– CEPPAC – CENTRO DE PESQUISA E PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO SOBRE AS AMÉRICAS / RESEARCH CENTER FOR GRADUATE STUDIES ON THE AMERICAS, http://www.ceppac.unb.br

The unique graduate center to promote comparative cross-national research in the Americas. Its multidisciplinary experience is a result of the close interaction between anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, historians and economists. It has promoted closer affinities with other fields of knowledge such as the feminist studies, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, decoloniality, Latin American Studies, North American Studies and Canadian Studies/Études Canadiennes. CEPPAC is organized under 6 lines of investigation, namely: 1.Access to Justice and Rights in the Americas; 2. Development, Globalization and Regionalization in the Americas; 3. Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas; 4. History, Theory and Social and Political Thought in the Americas; 5. International Migrations and Borders in the Americas; 6. Society, State and Politics in the Americas.

The first and third lines of investigation listed above are directly linked to the goals and problematic developed in the GDRI Project. They host laboratories and teams of researchers compromised with the interpretation of unequal accesses to justice, social policies and multiculturalism and their current impacts on Indigenous Peoples and other ethnic minorities living in Latin American national societies. CEPPAC constitutes itself as a center of reference for the exchange of data, information and knowledge of contemporary social and political processes and interethnic conflicts in the continent which are accessible through its peer reviewed journals: Revista de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre as Américas and the recently created Abya Yala – Revista sobre Acesso à Justiça e Direitos nas Américas. http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/repam

Member: Rebecca Lemos Igreja

– NEPE – THE CENTER FOR STUDIES AND RESEARCH ON ETHNICITY (NEPE) / NÚCLEO DE ESTUDOS E PESQUISAS SOBRE ETNICIDADE

Created in 1990 at the Post-Graduation Programme in Anthropology of Federal University of Pernambuco, in Recife, it was officially registered in the base of the CNPq,’s Research Groups and General Directorate of Brazil, in 1996. The NEPE aims to gather thematic researchers on ethnicity within an interdisciplinary perspective with the main objective of coordinating debate forums, studies groups and research on the theme of identity, ethnicity and interethnic relations in order to support the production of knowledge in the areas of indigenous anthropology, Brazilian ethnology, indigenous sociology, history, anthropology of African-Brazilian populations and ethnic minorities. Since 2011, the members of NEPEconcentrate their activities on the following lines of research: Ethnodevelopment and Environment; Identity, Ethnicity and Interethnic Relations; Indigenous Museums, Medicines Indigenous and Traditional Practices Healing and Heritage and Intellectual Property. http://www.ufpe.br/nepe

Member: Renato Athias

MEXICO

The CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND ADVANCED STUDIES IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY (CIESAS), is a Public Research Center specialized in the field of social anthropology and related disciplines. It has offices in 8 states of the Mexican Republic, with 160 researchers and 8 graduate programs distributed at each venue. The Center has a wide national and international recognition both for its graduate programs and the quality of its research. The field of legal and political anthropology of CIESAS has become a reference for anthropologist and social scientist interested in the study of legal pluralism, indigenous Rights and the administration of justice. With a strong emphasis on ethnography and collaborative methodologies, the legal anthropological group of scholars has formed different generations of students and developed several collective research projects in México and Guatemala. The Group has also the lead in the area of gender rights and cultural diversity in Mexico and Latin America. In recent times with the increase of neoliberal violence affecting indigenous territories there is an increase interest in the study of human Rights violations to indigenous peoples as well as the responses they develop to defend their institutions and their right to self determination.

Members: Victoria Chenaut; Dolores Figueroa; Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo; Mariana Mora; Maria Teresa Sierra

– UNIVERSIDAD VERACRUZANA, XALAPA

The Institute for Educational Research, University of Veracruz, (http://www.uv.mx/iie/), located in Xalapa on the Mexican Gulf coast, includes 21 researchers, 50 postgraduates students, working on Cultural Diversity and Education Policies, Indigenous Education, Social and Curricular Justice. It develops trans-disciplinary researches on Sustainability, Climate Change, Intercultural Studies, Epistemological Pluralism, Languages and Dialogue of Knowledge. The Institute offer PhD and Master programs in Education Research and a Master in Education for Interculturality and Sustainability, training indigenous students and teachers from the Intercultural University of Veracruz (UVI) and it offers programs from Basic to Higher Education to indigenous peoples of Mexico and Latin America. It provides a dynamic scientific environment for doctoral and postdoctoral students in anthropology and sociology of education who want to build ethnographies and critical reflexions about learning and schooling among Indigenous Peoples, about rights and political issues in multi-ethnic territories, or about collective action, social and environmental movements in Mexico and Latin America. The Institute holds since 2013 the UNESCO Chair in Citizenship, Education and the Environmental Sustainability of Development.

Member: Bruno Baronnet

AUSTRALIA

– THE ALFRED DEAKIN INSTITUTE FOR CITIZENSHIP AND GLOBALISATION (ADI) at Deakin University (http://www.deakin.edu.au/alfred-deakin-institute/about) in Melbourne, Australia aims to understand complex social issues associated with globalising processes through innovative and mixed- method multidisciplinary research. With a focus on disseminating its research through high-impact channels, engaging in partnerships and supporting high-quality researchers and doctoral students, it seeks to contribute to knowledge construction and influence research developments, public debates and policy agendas. ADI hosts leading researchers working on projects concerning race relations, Indigenous heritage, place-making and visual culture. Theme 3 ‘Indigenous peoples, development, spatial and environmental justice’ links to ADI’s core research themes of Diversity and Identity; Culture and Heritage; Development and Human Rights. The theme also correlates closely with work that Professor Altman is undertaking at the Australian National University (RegNet) and Charles Darwin University (RIEL) in Australia and with his collaboration as research leader for Oceania with the Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives (CICADA) based at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.

Member: Jon Altman

ARGENTINA

– DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES, LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY

El Equipo de Antropología Política y Jurídica de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires se creó en 1993 en el ámbito de la Sección de Antropología Social del Instituto de Ciencias Antropológicas. Lo integran antropólogas y antropólogos sociales interesados en la reflexión conceptual y la producción de etnografías en el campo de la antropología política y jurídica.

Los temas de investigación del Equipo se centran en el análisis de la violencia estatal y de la trama burocrática -administrativa y judicial– que la configura, así como en el estudio de las diversas formas en que las acciones de movimientos y colectivos sociales buscan limitarla e impugnarla o, por el contrario, la demandan y legitiman.

El Equipo desarrolla un intenso programa de intercambio académico con grupos de investigadores de universidades de Brasil y también tiene una activa participación en organizaciones sociales y de derechos humanos, a través de proyectos de trabajo conjunto e interviniendo en consultorías y pericias antropológicas.

Member: Morita Carrasco