Brazilian research delegation visited the Centre for Privacy Studies
The project started in 2020, when Natacha Klein Käfer and Mette Birkedal Bruun received funding for the project Historical Notions of Privacy in Latin America from The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, the International Network Programme.
The partnership between the Centre for Privacy Studies and the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria is dedicated to exploring historical notions of privacy in Latin America and brings together the expertise of the Brazilian research team and the research methods developed by the Centre for Privacy Studies.
Since 2020, the project has been conducted online with conferences and a seminar series until April 2023, when a group of Privacy researchers went to Brazil to conduct the course “Advanced School for Computational History,” In September, our collaborators from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria finally came to Copenhagen for a whole week of workshops and network activities. We were very happy to welcome Professor Beatriz Teixeira Weber, Professor José Remedi, Professor Mariana F. da C Thompson Flores and Professor Francisco Mendonça Jr.
We have asked our Brazilian colleagues about their main gains from the visit and the collaboration. We have also posed Assistant Professor Natacha Klein Käfer and Centre Director Professor Mette Birkedal Bruun questions about their involvement in and significance of the project.
Centre Director and Professor Mette Birkedal Bruun. From from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria Professor Francisco Mendonça Jr., Prof Mariana F. da C Thompson Flores, Professor Beatriz Teixeira Weber and Professor José Remedi.
Professor Francisco Mendonça Jr., Prof Mariana F. da C Thompson Flores, Professor Beatriz Teixeira Weber and Professor José Remedi, What are the main gains from your visit and the collaboration?
"We had an amazing experience during our visit to the Centre for Privacy Studies. Although, the best experience is always the people. The entire Privacy team was so kind and attentive! We have no words to thank you for so much attention and care. We certainly have a lot to learn from you about how to welcome people well.
Besides that, the experience of sharing research was very inspiring for us. The Centre for Privacy Studies has given us an incredible methodological lens to view and deal with our research. We have learned a lot from Privacy and we are very happy to know that we are conducting our research correctly. We brought home many contributions from the debate that we had.
The concept of historical notions of Privacy has an important impact on our research. From the history of health, healing and religiosity, history of secrecy and esotericism, food history, honour and private justice history, all of our research themes are crossed by the historical notions of Privacy.
The visit to the South Campus Data Lab was extremely interesting. We brought a lot of ideas from this experience to implement in our digital humanities lab.
Our connection with the Centre for Privacy Studies is the most consistent form of internationalization, which is an important requirement that guarantees the level of excellence in Brazilian universities. In this sense, beyond theoretical approaches and research gains, our educational institution benefits greatly from this collaboration.
We want to thank you for the opportunity that we had to be with you at the University of Copenhagen and for being part of the debates at the Centre for Privacy Studies since 2020. We hope we are up to the task!
We expect that our next meeting can take place soon."
What does it mean to you, Mette Birkedal Bruun, that your work method and research about notions of historical privacy has reached Brazil?
“It is thrilling to see how the analytical lens of PRIVACY receives new dimensions in the meeting with the Latin American sources and historical situations as well as the individual research foci of each of our colleagues from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. It is truly an academic joy to engage in this fertile exchange, and I am grateful to Professors Beatriz Teixeira Weber, José Remedi, Mariana Flores, and Francisco Mendonça Jr for their vivacious visit and for expanding our understanding of historical notions of privacy beyond the PRIVACY research programme. I also want to thank my PRIVACY colleague assistant professor Natacha Klein Käfer for establishing and nourishing this rich academic exchange.”
What does it mean to you, Natacha Klein Käfer, to have the opportunity to invite your Brazilian professors to Denmark and the Centre for Privacy Studies?
“Being able to bring the Brazilian delegation to the Centre for Privacy Studies was an incredible experience. Professors Beatriz Teixeira Weber, José Remedi, Mariana Flores, and Francisco Mendonça Jr demonstrated the great potential of using privacy as a lens for historical analysis in Latin America and the importance of these global exchanges. Connecting the University of Copenhagen with Universidade Federal de Santa Maria has continuously shown how collaboration can transform and advance scholarship, and we are immensely thankful to the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science and the Danish National Research Foundation for the support in expanding the study of historical notions of privacy to highlight Latin American perspectives.”