Olaf Kaltmeier is professor of Iberoamerican History at the University of Bielefeld. He serves as director of CALAS-Maria Sybilla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studing in the Humanities and Social Science as well as spokesperson of the BMBF. At the University of Bielefeld, he serves on the Executive Board for the Center for Interamerican Studies (CIAS), as coordinator (with W. Raussert) of the BMBF project "The Americas as a Space of Entanglement" and is coordinator of the research area in the SFB 1288 "Practices of Comparing."

He is editor of the publication series Inter-American Studies / Estudios interamericanos. Wissenschaftsverlag Trier und Bilingual Press- Tempe University. (with W. Rassuert, J. Raab, and S. Thies), InterAmerican Research: Contact, Communication, Conflict. Routledge (with the same group). Currently, he is preparing three volumes of the International Handbook on the Americas. He has done investigation and teaching residencies in Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and the USA.

 

Research lines

Indigeneity

Movimientos sociales

Patrimonio

Historia ambiental

Estudios inter-americanos

Historia transnacional y postcolonialidad

 

Publications

 

Monographs (selection):

2021. National Parks from North to South. An Entangled History of Conservation and Colonization in Argentina. WVT/UNO: Trier, New Orleans.

2021. Resistencia indígena y formación del Estado. Saquisilí del siglo XVI al XXI. Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional.

2020. Nationalparks von Nord bis Süd. Eine transnationale Verflechtungsgeschichte von Naturschutz und Kolonialisierung in Argentinien. Bielefeld: kipu.

2020. Refeudalisierung und Rechtsruck. Soziale Ungleichheit und politische Kultur in Lateinamerika. Bielefeld: Bielefeld University Press.

2020. Refeudalização e guinada à direita. Desigualdade social e cultura política na América Latina. Brasilien: Phillos. 

2018. Refeudalización. Desigualdad social, económica y cultura política en América Latina en el temprano siglo XXI. Guadalajara / Bielefeld / San José CR / Quito / Buenos Aires: CALAS.

2016. Konjunkturen der (De-)Kolonialisierung. Indigene Gemeinschaften, Hacienda und Staat in den ecuadorianischen Anden von der Kolonialzeit bis heute. Bielefeld: transcript.

2012. Politische Räume jenseits von Staat und Nation. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.

2004. ¡Marichiweu! – Zehnmal werden wir siegen! Eine Rekonstruktion der aktuellen Mapuche-Bewegung in Chile aus der Dialektik von Herrschaft und Widerstand seit der Conquista. Münster: Ed. ITP-Kompass. (Dissertation)

1999. Im Widerstreit der Ordnungen. Kulturelle Identität, Subsistenz und Ökologie in Bolivien. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitätsverla.

 

Compilations (selection):

2021. Olaf Kaltmeier, Heidrun Mörtl y Josef Raab (coords.): De/Colonization in the Americas: Continuity and Change / De/Colonización en las Américas: Cambios y continuidades. Trier / New Orleans: WVT / UNO.

2021. Olaf Kaltmeier, Mirko Petersen, Julia Roth y Wilfried Raussert (coords.): Cherishing the Past, Envisioning the Future. Entangled Practices of Heritage and Utopia in the Americas 2021. Trier: WVT.

2021. Olaf Kaltmeier y Wilfried Raussert (coords.) (2021): Inter-American Perspectives in the 21st Century. Inter-American Studies/Estudio Interamericanos (23). Trier / New Orleans: WVT / UNO 2021

2021. Stefan Peters, Eleonora Roland, Olaf Kaltmeier, Hans-Jürgen Burchardt y Christina Schnepel (coords.): Krisenklima. Umweltkonflikte aus lateinamerikanischer Perspektive. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

2020. Olaf Kaltmeier; Anne Tittor; Daniel Hawkins y Eleonora Rohland (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2020. Wilfried Raussert; Olaf Kaltmeier y Nadine Pollvogt (coords.): Heritage-Boom. On Culture and Nature in the Americas. fiar, 13 (1).

2019. Gerardo Gutiérrez Cham y Olaf Kaltmeier (coords.): ¡Aquí los jóvenes! Frente a las crisis. Guadalajara: Editoral Universitaria.

2019. Olaf Kaltmeier; Josef Raab; Mike Foley; Alice Nash; Stefan Rinke y Marion Rufer (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the History and Society of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2019. Wilfried Raussert y Olaf Kaltmeier (coords.): Sonic Politics: Music and Social Movements in the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2017. Lukas Rehm; Olaf Kaltmeier y Jochen Kemner (coords.): Politics of Entanglement in the Americas. Connecting Transnational Flows and Local Perspectives. Tempe: Bilingual Press.

2016. Anne Tittor, Olaf Kaltmeier y Antoine Acker (coords.): Negotiating Nature. Imaginaries, Interventions and Resistance. fiar 9 (2).

2016. Mario Rufer y Olaf Kaltmeier: Entangled Heritages. Postcolonial Perspectives on the Uses of the Past in Latin America. London: Routledge.

2012. Sarah Corona y Olaf Kaltmeier (coords.): Methoden dekolonialisieren. Eine Werkzeugkiste zur Demokratisierung der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften. Münster: Westf. Damptboot.

2012. Sarah Corona y Olaf Kaltmeier (coords.): En diálogo. Metodologías horizontales en Ciencias Sociales y Culturales. Barcelona: Gedisa.

2011. Olaf Kaltmeier (coord.): Selling EthniCity. Urban Cultural Politics in the Americas. Farnham: Ashgate.

2009. Pablo Ospina; Olaf Kaltmeier y Christian Büschges: Los Andes en movimiento. Identidad y poder en el nuevo paisaje político. Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional.

2008. Olaf Kaltmeier (coord.): Jatarishun. Testimonios de la lucha indígena de Saquisilí (1930-2006). Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional.

 

Articles (selection):

2021. "From Color to Whiteness: Thinking the Transfiguration of the Political Body in the Americas from Evo Morales and Barack Obama to Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump”. En: Kaltmeier y Raussert (coords): Inter-American Perspectives in the 21st Century. Inter-American Studies/Estudio Interamericanos (23). Trier / New Orleans: WVT / UNO. 75-90.

2021: "Sieben Thesen um die Refeudalisierung in Lateinamerika zu verstehen. Einflüsterungen von Friedrich Engels zur sozialen Lage im XXI Jahrhundert“. En: Imbusch, Chihaia y Heß (coords.): Von Engels gelernt? Linke Utopien und emanzipatorische Praxis in Lateinamerika. Edition Nahua (19). Wuppertal: Informationsbüro Nicaragua. 78-90.

2020. Antonie Acker; Olaf Kaltmeier y Anne Tittor: "Nature". En: Kaltmeier et al. (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge. 

2020. Martin Breuer y Olaf Kaltmeier: "Social Inequality". En: Kaltmeier et al. (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2020. Eleonora Rohland y Olaf Kaltmeier: „Introduction: Geopolitics and Governance – Inter-American Spaces of Entanglement“. En: Kaltmeier et al. (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2019. “Indigeneity”. En: Kaltmeier et al. (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the History and Society of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2019. "Invidious Comparison and the New Global Leisure Class: On the Refeudalization of Consump­tion in the Old and New Gilded Age". En: fiar. forum for inter-american research, 12 (1). 

2019. "Refeudalisierung in Lateinamerika: Über soziale Polarisierung im 21. Jahrhundert". Portal Amerika 21, 20.03.2019.

2019. Michael Stewart Foley; Olaf Kaltmeier y Mario Rufer: „Introduction: history and society in the Americas in the 20th and 21st centuries. Inter-American thresholds and critical key concepts”. En: Kaltmeier et al. (coords.): The Routledge Handbook to the History and Society of the Americas. London / New York: Routledge.

2019. Wilfried Raussert y Olaf Kaltmeier: “Introduction: Sonic politics: music and the narration of the social in the Americas from the 1960s to the present.” En: Raussert y Kaltmeier (coords.): Sonic Politics: Music and Social Movements in the Americas. London / New York: Routledge. 

2017. "Politics of Indigeneity in the Andean Highlands. Indigenous Social Movements and the State in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru (1940-2014)." En: Nasir et al. (coords.): Indigeneity on the Move. Varying Manifestations of a Contested Concept. Oxford/ London: Berghahn.

2017. "Doing Area Studies in the Americas and Beyond. Towards Reciprocal Methodologies and the Decolonization of Knowledge." En: Mielke y Hornidge (coords.): Area Studies at the Crossroads. Knowledge Production after the Mobility Turn. New York: Palgrave.

2017. “Politics of Indigeneity in the Andean Highlands. Indigenous Social Movements and the State in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru (1940-2014)." En: Uddin et al. (coords.): Indigeneity on the Move. Varying Manifestations of a Contested Concept. Oxford, London: Berghahn.

2016. "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of Heritage for Latin America. Heritage Politics and Nostalgia between Coloniality and Indigeneity." En: Kaltmeier y Rufer (coords.): Entangled Heritages. Postcolonial Perspectives on the Uses of the Past in Latin America. New York/ London: Routledge.

2016. Antonio Acker; Olaf Kaltmeier y Anne Tittor: “The Social Production of Nature. Between Coloniality and Capitalism.” En: fiar: forum for inter-american research, 9 (2).

2016. "Mexican Indigenismo in Hemispheric Context: Elements for a Historiography of Inter-American Entanglements in the First Half of the Twentieth Century." En: Raussert y Graham (coords.): Mobile and Entangled America(s). New York: Routledge.

2015. "Urban Cultural Politics of Graffiti. City-Marketing, Protests, and the Arts in the Production of Urban Imaginaries in Vancouver and Oaxaca“ En: Youkhana y Förster (coords.): Grafficity. Visual Practices and Contestations in Urban Space. Paderborn: Fink.

2015. “En búsqueda de la ciudad perdida. Género, erotismo y nostalgia en el paisaje urbano de Quito.” En: Thies et al. (coords.): De Patrias y Matrias: Gender and Nation in the Americas. Mexico: Colmex.

2015. “Die Retro-Kolonialisierung der Stadt: Kulturerbepolitiken und Vertreibung im historischen Stadtzentrum von Lima“ En: Burchardt, Kaltmeier y Öhlschläger (coords.): Urbane (T)Räume: Städte zwischen Kultur, Kommerz und Konflikt. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

2012. Sarah Corona Berkin y Olaf Kaltmeier: “Hacia la descolonización de las metodologías: reciprocidad, horizontalidad y poder.” En: Corona Berkin y Kaltmeier (coords.): En diálogo. Metodologías horizontales en Ciencias Sociales y Culturales. Mexiko: Gedisa.

2012. Sebastian Thies y Olaf Kaltmeier: “Specters of Multiculturalism: Conceptualizing the Field of Identity Politics in the Americas.” En: Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 7 (2).

2012. “Post-koloniale Geschichte(n): Repräsentationen, Temporalitäten und Geopolitiken des Wissens.” En: Reuter y Karentzos (coords.): Schlüsselwerke der Postcolonial Studies Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.

2011. “Urban Landscapes of Mall-ticulturality. (Retro-)Coloniality and Identity Politics in Quito: The Case of the San Luis Shopping Center“. En: Kaltmeier (coords.): Selling EthniCity: Urban Cultural Politics in the Americas. Farnham: Ashgate.

2009. "Das Land neu gründen: Gesellschaftliche Kontexte, politische Kulturen und indigene Bewegungen in Südamerika." En: Mittag y Ismar (coords.): "El pueblo unido?" Soziale Bewegungen und politischer Protest in der Geschichte Lateinamerikas, Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

2007. “La Universidad terrateniente. Biopolítica, poder soberano y resistencias indígenas-campesinas en las Haciendas de la Universidad Central en la provincia de Cotopaxi, 1930-1980.” En: Procesos. Revista Ecuatoriana de Historia. (26).

2005. “Mapuches en la mira de las racionalidades políticas. Poder y diferencia cultural desde la conquista espanol hasta el Chile actual.“ En: CUHSO: Cultura, Hombre-Sociedad, 9 (1).