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Lorena López Jáuregui

Foto López Jáuregui3
Image Credit: Santiago Engelhardt

International Research Training Group 'Temporalities of Future in Latin America'

PhD Candidate

History

Project: "The International Congress of Americanists in the Age of Museums, 1885-1915"

Address
Boltzmannstr. 4
14195 Berlin

Education

Since 05/2019

PhD Candidate, International Research Training Group ‘Temporalities of Future’

2016 – 2019

Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 

2016

Certificate (diplomado) in History and anthropology of religions, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia

2011 - 2012

Exchange Student, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, DGECI-UNAM Scholarship Holder

2008 – 2013

Bachelor of Arts (Licenciatura) in History, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

 Work Experience 

Since 05/2019

Researcher, International Research Training Group ‘Temporalities of Future’

2017 – 2019

Student Assistent, Prof. Dr. Stefan Rinke, Freie Universität Berlin

2017

Research Assistant, Prof. Dr. Sven Beckert, Research Project: “Global History of Capitalism”, Harvard University

2015 – 2016

Assistant Professor, “Porfirismo” Seminar of Prof. Mtro. Rubén Ruiz Guerra, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

2013

Research Assistant, Prof. Dr. Federico Navarrete, Research Project “Historia y memoria de los pueblos indígenas de América”, Papiit Scholarshipholder, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

2011

Voluntary Service, Museo Casa de Alfeñique, Project: “Divulgación del Museo Casa de Alfeñique”, Director: Patricia Vázquez Olvera

Project: "The International Congress of Americanists in the Age of Museums, 1885-1915"

Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Stefan Rinke, Freie Universität Berlin


In its early stages at the end of the 19th century, Americanism was conceived as a new exciting science that could help discover the “truths of human nature”. In light of its material culture, many of its practitioners feared the disappearance -mostly violent- of the indigenous cultures in the Americas. That is why many of them decided to build “archives of humanity” or “archives for the nation” and collect as soon as possible the cultural and biological manifestations of humans that could be preserved for the future. They started collecting systematically the artistic achievements and the traces of human migrations in museums.

This doctoral project analyzes the transnational history of the International Congress of Americanists. This congress emerged as a network of scientific collaboration with members from thirty different countries in Europe and the Americas. In the beginning of the 20th Century it was centered in the French-, German- and Spanish-speaking scientific communities and helped to discuss the achievements of the ancient cultures in the Americas. Americanism gathered disciplines such as archeology, anthropology, linguistics, history, and paleontology and was conceived by its practitioners as a science that could help to understand the history of the populations in the Americas prior to 1492.

The Congress helped to form a strong scientific community immersed not only in discussions and production of new anthropological theory. They were essential in the formation of collections for national, ethnographic, and imperial museums and contributed to form ethnic, national, and cosmopolitan identities. Americanists were not only known for being the avant-garde in many scientific discussions, but also for working in the most prominent museums in the world like the Museo Nacional in Mexico, Museo de La Plata in Argentina, Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Germany and the US National Museum. 

The research examines the geopolitics of the Americanism within the XVII International Congress of Americanists in 1910, during the Centennial of the Independence festivities in Mexico and Argentina. As a conjunctural moment, the Centennial opened a social and intellectual space to rethink the past and to rethink aspirations for the future. Americanism contributed to this within two legitimating phenomena of its time: science and nationalism, which promoted a series of future projections based on the study of the past. Heritage-nation-science built a strong connection in regards of scientific and nationalist interests.

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