idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
The Argentinian archaeologist Professor Gustavo Politis is to receive a research prize from the Humboldt Foundation. Among other things, the researcher is studying the early settlement of the Americas. Professor Carla Jaimes Betancourt from the Department of Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn had put his name forward for the €60,000 award. The pair are now stepping up their collaboration.
Gustavo Politis is a distinguished researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and a professor at the National University of the Center of the Buenos Aires Province. “This accolade is well deserved and honors Professor Politis’s remarkable academic career and the immense contributions he’s made to archaeology,” says Professor Carla Jaimes Betancourt from the Department of Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn, who is also a member of the Present Pasts Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) and of the Steering Committee for the TRA Sustainable Futures.
The €60,000 prize enables recipients to fund a research visit of up to a year and attend various academic and scientific events. The foundation will present the award at a symposium held in Bamberg in March 2025. The prizewinners will then be invited to a reception hosted by Germany’s Federal President in Berlin in July.
Professor Politis is planning to spend between March and December 2025 at the University of Bonn, where he will research the Arawak’s southward expansion in collaboration with Professor Jaimes Betancourt. He will also write a book on the socio-political aspects of the colonial encounters in the River Plate Basin in South America from a historical, archaeological and anthropological perspective.
“It’s a great honor to receive the Humboldt Research Prize, given the high international prestige of this award. It certainly constitutes a landmark in my career, and I feel it’s a recognition of my long-standing work dedicated to the archaeological investigation. It also provides a unique opportunity to spend almost a year in Germany and benefit from the creative and stimulant research atmosphere of the Department of Anthropology of the Americas and the University of Bonn,” says Professor Politis, delighted at the prospect of conducting research at the University of Bonn.
Professor Politis’s work has left an indelible mark on the field of archaeology in South America. His main area of focus is the archaeology of the Pampas, northeastern Argentina and the early settlement in the Americas, and his findings have significantly advanced our scientific understanding of these fields. The ethno-archaeological research that he has conducted among various South American hunter-gatherers—the Nukak, Hotï and Awá—has opened up new avenues of study, while his work on key questions of the theory and history of archaeology from a South American perspective as well as within the sphere of critical archaeology has been instrumental in shaping the discipline.
Professor Politis studied anthropology and completed a doctorate in archaeology at the National University of La Plata in Argentina, before working as a postdoc at the University of Kentucky, the University of Maine and the Smithsonian Institute. He has been a professor at the National University of the Center of the Buenos Aires Province since 1993 and also conducts research at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). He has held visiting professorships at several research institutions and won numerous awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2003), the Houssay Trajectory Award (2013), the Argentine National Researcher Award (2013) and the 2023 Shanghai Archaeological Forum Research Award presented by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Prof. Dr. Carla Jaimes Betancourt
Department of Anthropology of the Americas
University of Bonn
Phone: +49 228 73-4446
Email: cjaimes@uni-bonn.de
Professor Gustavo Politis, - currently being hosted by Professor Carla Jaimes Betancourt at the Univ ...
Steve Zhao
Steve Zhao
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