Ethnicity in Motion. Transculturalization processes among European immigrant minorities in Brazil
Project lead:
- Prof. Dr. Konstanze Jungbluth (Chair of Pragmatics and Contrastive Linguistics, European University Viadrina)
- Prof. Dr. Monica Savedra (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro)
- Dr. Peter Rosenberg
Funding institution:
DAAD, Capes (Brazilian Federal Ministry of Education)
Duration:
since 2015
Project Website
Project description:
The scientific aim is the investigation of trans-culturalization processes amongst European immigrant minorities in Brazil. This socio-linguistic study is to be carried out empirically in several parts of southern Brazil into Brazilians with a German background (Canguçu/RS, Santa Maria de Jetibá/ES, Rio de Janeiro) and Brazilians with an Italian background (Juíz da Fora, Garibaldi, Bento Gonçalves, Serafina Corrêa/RS, Pequeri/MG).
The research will be centered on places where – for the first time in Brazil – school projects were set up to integrate the minority languages as a school subject or language of instruction and became reference points for the identity discourse within the framework of a co-officializing of the minority language.
Leading on from our own extensive studies which verify processes of language change towards the majority language and socio-cultural assimilation, the inclusion of the minority population is to be researched in a new way – the research will not focus on a revitalization or ‘renaissance’ of linguistic or ethno-cultural belonging but rather on the trans-culturizing processes in which the ethnic ‘heritage’ and national belonging deriving from the person’s background can be located within the hybrid constructions of ‘transnational’ areas. The research perspective thereby combines a wider observation of transnational (including European) references and a deeper understanding through the comparison of differing European and other minorities (e.g. the Quilombolas – the descendants of Afro-Brazilian slaves).
