Mecila, the Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America is an academic consortium composed of three German institutions: Freie Universität Berlin (coordination), Universität zu Köln, and Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz); and four Latin American institutions: Universidade de São Paulo, Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento, El Colegio de México, and Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (CONICET / Universidad Nacional de La Plata).

The Centre aims at developing cutting-edge research through horizontal interdisciplinary cooperation among scholars from Germany, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions of the world, drawing on long-term collaborative ties between the consortium institutions.

Mecila Berlin Conference 2025

The main objective of the conference "Exploring the Conviviality-Inequality Nexus: Findings and Prospects" is to present the progress made so far by Mecila, the social relevance of the knowledge developed, and the prospects for continuing the Centre’s research programme and its dissemination to academic and non-academic audiences in Latin America, in Germany, and internationally.

Another key goal is to strengthen existing networks of cooperation and collaboration. Accordingly, other pertinent German joint projects and particularly the Merian Centres based in Accra, Delhi, Guadalajara, and Tunis as well as the DFG Humanities Centre of Advanced Studies Futures of Sustainability and the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies will contribute to the conference programme.