The central objective of the Latin America Centre at the University of Aarhus is to prepare Danish society for the possible future increase in economic, political, cultural and scientific interactions between Denmark and one of the world’s fastest developing regions. To do so, it is necessary to engage in interdisciplinary research activities related to social, political, cultural and environmental challenges in contemporary Latin America. A secondary objective is thus to create synergy through interdisciplinary collaboration in a bottom-up strategy. It is possible to distinguish between at least two kinds of synergy in this regard. On the one hand, synergy will be achieved between closely related research fields like Area Studies, Anthropology, Law, Political Science and Economics, or between existing advanced research projects represented within the centre, such as four mutually related research projects: Extension of the traditional indigenous seed Amaranth; Cultivation of the natural sweetener Stevia with great perspectives for the treatment of Diabetes 2; Biodiversity in the tropical Andes; and Comparative analysis of ecosystems. On the other hand, synergy will result from the concrete problems raised by the implementation of such projects in Latin America, where each project is confronted with a great variety of questions of a political, economic, legal, cultural and linguistic character. A series of themes or areas of interdisciplinary research will serve to create a clear-cut research framework for the centre’s interdisciplinary activities in this regard.
LACUA's main interdisciplinary research themes
