Frederik Schulze (Münster): Environment and Knowledge. Large Dams in Latin America in the Twentieth Century

Zeit: 18.00 (c.t.) - 20.00 Uhr

Vortrag

im Rahmen des Berlin-Brandenburger Colloquiums für Umweltgeschichte
 

Frederik Schulze (Münster): Environment and Knowledge. Large Dams in Latin America in the Twentieth Century

Abstract:

My research project aims at studying the construction of large dams within the framework of Latin American developmental policy during the Cold War. For these modernizing efforts, the exploitation of natural resources was crucial. Since the 1960s, Latin America became the most important arena of global dam construction with the largest dams ever built, due to geographic conditions and technological appropriation, enabled by entanglements between Latin America, the United States and Europe. Large dams in Latin America had also a symbolic function and promised social modernization through technology and systematic planning. However, the destruction of the environment led to a decline of this imagery. By the end of the 1970s, dams triggered considerable resistance by the civil society.

Short Bio:

Frederik Schulze is an assistant professor in Assistant Professor (wissenschaftlicher Assistent) for Latin American History at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, where he works on a postdoctoral research project on “Environment and Knowledge. Large Dams in Latin America in the Twentieth Century”. His PhD thesis “Emigration and failed colonial discourses. ‘Germanness’ in southern Brazil” from Free University Berlin received the Friedrich-Meinecke-Prize in 2014. It was published „Auswanderung als nationalistisches Projekt. ‚Deutschtum‘ und Kolonialdiskurse im südlichen Brasilien (1824–1941)“ in 2016 with Böhlau.

Recent Publications:

„‘Auslandsdeutschtum' in Brazil (1919–1941). Global Discourses and Local Histories“, in: German History 33,3 (2015), S. 405–422; „Von verbrasilianisierten Deutschen und deutschen Brasilianern. „Deutschsein“ in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasilien, 1870–1945“, in: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 41,2 (2015), S. 197–227.