What happened when police forces in Latin America learned to write?

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Riekenberg
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 392483747

This project wants to shed light on what happened when policemen in Latin America learned how to write at the beginning of the modern age. According to literature, late 19th century scripture acquisition by the police is a crucial part of modern state building. However, there are indications of policemen using scripture for other purposes than the intended official police culture when they were starting to write on the job. We want to pursue this further. Thus, we are not interested in writing as an expression about something but rather as a cultural or symbolic practice. We want to find out what and how policemen were writing. For within their scripture practices the police institution and via this the institution the state and its order were reinterpreted and represented by the police. Therefore, we are not practicing yet another history of the police. Moreover, we want to contribute to the analyses of modern state building in Latin America and hope for more insights into the hybrids of this process.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants