A History of Intellectual Women in Central America, c. 1900-1950. Revisiting the History of Hispanic American Ideas and Intellectuals.

• Applicant: Monica Albizurez, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 536574507

The project examines the history of intellectual women in Central America between 1900 and 1950. The central thesis of the project is that Central American intellectual women developed a new way of thinking about Hispanic American modernity during the period under study. They made a special contribution to the history of ideas with their view of globalization in the first half of the 20th century, as they combined concepts of secular modernity with popular knowledge, religious thought, and the defense of natural resources, and were thus able to think a multilayered, heterogeneous modernity. Their personal experience as women who did not come from one of the colonial or postindependent centers of power in Latin America made them advocates for the democratization of culture. Although they were at the forefront of universal intellectual thought of the time, their origins in the global periphery meant that they had little voice in Hispanic American intellectual networks. This research project aims to transform our knowledge of the history of ideas and of the history of intellectuals in Hispanic America by challenging the focus on male intellectuals in major urban centers. Central America gains visibility as a place of productive intellectual life, and women obtain their rightful place in the history of Hispanic American ideas.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants