One of the primary components of research at the department of sociology at the Latin American Institute are the doctoral projects, which represent the institute’s main areas of work.

General information about doctoral studies at the Freie Universität can be found here (link), for more details on studying for your PhD in the department of social sciences , click here.

PhD Projects

• Current PhD research projects (Prof. Dr. Sérgio Costa) 
• Completed PhD research projects (Prof. Dr. Sérgio Costa)

 Current Projects (Prof. Dr. Sérgio Costa)

• Mariana Treviño Riojas: ‘War on drugs’, disappeared people, and resistance strategies in Mexico (2006–2020)

• Lívia de Souza Lima: Back, Female, and Peripheral Representation in the Rio de Janeiro State Assembly (Co-supervisor, Univ. Bielefeld)
• Tori Sinanan: Mapping (under)development: A situational analysis of rural East Trinidad. (member of Minor Cosmpolitanisms)
• Alexandre Nogueira Martins: Decolonial QueerPolitics: Queer Aspirations and Anti-Violence Struggles in Latin America
• Mariana Motta Vivian: Democracies, modernities and the temporalities of future in Latin America: sociological interpretations of contemporary Brazil
• Myriam Sauer: Idioms of the psychic: Decolonial studies on imaginations of the psychic and its societal applications in Brazil, China, and Europe
• Braedyn Ezra Simon: To Belong to Not To Belong? Embodied Borders and the Politics of Sex and Gender Knowledge in Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist Discourses
• Isadora Cardoso: One struggle one fight: intersectional discourses and activisms for climate justice in the Global South
• Anne Ziegler: Afro-indigenous cosmovision, identity negotiation, and the struggle for land – a comparative research of activisms from Brazilian Quilombo and Central American Garifuna communities

• Belén Díaz: "Struggles for Hegemony in the 21st Century: The Renewal of the Latin American Right" (member of the International Research Training Group “Temporalities of Future”)

• Elis de Aquino: "The Way to Success: Social Mobility Mechanisms and Individual Strategies of the Poor in Brazil" (member of the International Research Training Group “Temporalities of Future”)
• Krista Lillemets: "Expansion of the Sphere of Citizenship Rights in the Semi-Periphery: Comparing Brazil and Central Eastern Europe Through the Lens of Polanyian “Double Movement”

Current Projects (Prof. Dr. Renata Motta)

• Mariana Calcagni, Promovierende Soziologie: Food Justice movements in Latin America and Europe: towards a new food regime - Stipendium: DAAD, Becas Chile.
• Federico Masson, Promovierender Soziologie: Scarcity-Hunger Apparatus’: Constitution of Objects and Subjectivities in Alternative Food Networks.

 Completed Projects (Prof. Dr. Sérgio Costa)

• Julia von Sigsfeld: "  'Ancestral Knowledges' and Development in Contemporary
  Ecuador - Epistemic Struggles and Situated Cosmopolitanisms" (member of RTG Minor Cosmopolitanisms)
• Ernesto Aguilar Carvajal: “El boicot de un orden moderno: estudiando el fracaso del proyecto PRUGAM en Costa Rica”
  (sponsored by DAAD)
• Fabio Santos: "Bridging fluid borders: Entangled spaces along the French-Brazilian border" (sponsored by IGP "Entre Espacios")
• Raquel Rojas Scheffer: "Trabajo doméstico remunerado. Desigualdades entrelazadas y organización gremial. Apuntes desde las experiencias uruguaya y paraguaya" (fellow of IGP "Entre Espacios")
• Tabea Sophia Goldboom: "Redefining the role of the state and the market in social security: the impact of transnational coalitions and public-private cooperation in micro-insurance"
• Ana Lucía Fernández Fernández: "Familias transnacionales en Latinoamérica. El caso de mujeres nicaragüenses y colombianas en Costa Rica" (fellow of DAAD-Alecosta; Erste Betreuerin Prof. Dr. Manuela Boatcă).
• Laura Aguirre Hernández: "Konstruktion von Räumen transnationalen Lebens an der Südgrenze Mexikos" (associated PhD-student from the IGP "Entre Espacios"); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 26.07.17.
• Philipp Altmann: "Die Indigenenbewegung in Ecuador als dekolonisierender Akteur - Eine begriffszentrierte Analyse ihres Diskurses"; PhD thesis was successfully defended on 26.04.13.
• Alexander Araya López: "Public spaces, stigmatization and media discourses of graffiti practices in Latin American press: Dynamics of symbolic exclusion and inclusion of urban youth" (sponsored by DAAD); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 10.07.14.
• Dr. Jorge Atría: "La pregunta por la desigualdad a la luz de los más desaventajados: percepciones y perspectivas de cohesión social en Chile" (sponsored by Conicyt - Sistema Bicentenario Becas Chile); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 27.10.15.
• Maria Backhouse: "Konflikte um Biokraftstoffe - Eine sozialökologische Mehrebenenanalyse der Konfliktlagen der  Biokraftstoffproduktion in Brasilien"; PhD thesis was successfully defended on 19.03.14.
• Jairo Baquero Melo: "Layered Inequalities: Collective Land Rights, Global Agribusiness and Resistance in the Lower Atrato Region, Colombia"; PhD thesis was successfully defended on 14.04.13.
• Kaciano Barbosa Gadelha: "Gendered Communities: Virtualisierung von Körper und Sexualität in GayRomeo" (sponsored by IGP „Between spaces“); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 10.07.13
• Mayarí Castillo: "Middle Class and Political Participation in Contemporary Chile"; (sponsored by Conicyt); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 10.07.13.
• Javiera Cienfuegos Illanes: "Familien auf Distanz: Die Bildung eines Zwischenraumes als alltägliche Lebensform" (sponsored by IGP „Between spaces“); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 27.06.13.
• Götz Kaufmann: "Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development. With a Case Study in Brazil's Legal Amazon Using Q Methodology"; PhD thesis was successfully defended on 05.03.12.
• Claudia Maldonado Graus: “Acontecimiento y transformación política en Chile: un relato desde las desigualdades", PhD thesis was successfully defended on 17.07.17.
• Edna Martínez: "Making the resilience and the existence: Black People in frontiers territories of Colombia and Ecuador and the Palm oil industry";  PhD thesis was successfully defended on 23.11.16.
• Mario A. Martínez Cortés: "Interculturality as Epistemic Project in Latin America. A Comparative Study from the Indigenous and Afro-Descendants' Higher Eduaction Initiatives in Brazil and Mexico";  PhD thesis was successfully defended on 19.07.17.
• Renata C. Motta: "Contesting GM Crops in Argentina and Brazil" (sponsored by the Research Network desiguALdades.net); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 12.01.2015.
• Airton Adelar Mueller: "Lokales Regieren, Sozialkapital und Entwicklung im Süden von Brasilien" (sponsored by the Protestant Development Service/ Evangelischen Entwicklungsdienstes, EED); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 10.02.14.
• Charlotte Schumann: "Interpreting Law: The Regulation of Previous Consultation in Brazil"; PhD thesis was successfully defended on 19.07.16.
• Anna Skornia: "Entangled Inequalities in Transnational Care Chains. Practices across the Borders of Peru and Italy" (sponsored by the Research Network desiguALdades.net); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 11.02.14.
• Renata Sternberg (formerly known as Stellmann de Sousa Lima): "Romantic love, regional differences and cultural capital: a comparative study between Brazil and Germany" (Stipendiatin der Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brasilien); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 03.02.2016.
• Rocío Vera Santos: "Barrios afroecuatorianos en Quito y la articulación de la identidad afroquiteña" (sponsored by DAAD); PhD thesis was successfully defended on 28.08.14.