Research

Connected Teams
Practicing Transcultural Art Histories under the Conditions of Ecological Crises and Digital Transformations: India, Latin America, and Europe

Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut with 4A_Lab, Berlin; Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta; Departamento de Historia del Arte, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá

13th-century temple submerged in the 1950s during the creation of a reservoir for the Bhakra Nangal Dam. Photo: Nachiket Chanchani.

 

CALL FOR POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS (2026–28)
Deadline 31 January 2026 (PST)
FAQ on the application process are included within the same link as the call for applications

Connected Teams (2025–28) is a research and fellowship program which studies the intersections of art, heritage, and environments in South Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The program aims to examine and practice art histories through transcultural and eco-critical approaches, in a way that allows a rethinking and reshaping of both in terms of their interrelations, including the ecologies of the research process itself. Operating on the premise that ‘objects’ are neither stable nor exclusively human-made, Connected Teams envisions art historical research—in dialogue with neighboring disciplines—to be concerned with porous, entangled, and dynamic relations among environments, objects, monuments, heritage, and landscapes, including multiple temporalities.

Petroglyphs and carvings on the offering stone at the entrance of colonial-era chapel in San Andrés de Pisimbalá, Tierradentro. Photo: Alexander Herrera.

In situ sculpture in Tierradentro. Water flowed towards the peaks opposite in a canal carved into the creatures´ back. Photo: Alexander Herrera.

The program consists of three teams located in South Asia (India), South America (Colombia), and Europe (Italy, Germany), respectively. The teams convene annually for a Seasonal School and connect in virtual formats in between. Connected Teams strives for new experimental modes of field work, new approaches to archives of all kinds, virtual tools for collaboration and communication, as well as visual and auditory forms of documentation. Through its novel structure, the program poses methodological challenges for undertaking research on historical and contemporary visual and material cultures by means of interdisciplinary conversations and interactions, as well as sustained engagement with multiple communities in both scholarly and public-facing work. At stake is the question of how to practice art history today; for the Connecting Teams program, this includes collaborations with filmmakers, artists, engineers, heritage professionals, biologists, and others. In this way, the program and its fellows address globally shared yet locally differentiated concerns at the intersections of (trans-)regional art histories and ecologies.

Connected Teams engages with the ongoing legacy of Getty’s Connecting Art Histories program and participates in its network of projects, while deepening and expanding its transcultural agenda.

Partners

This program is made possible with support from Getty through its Connecting Art Histories Initiative.
In cooperation with:

Olga Isabel Acosta
Principal Investigator (Uniandes)
E-Mail: oi.acosta@uniandes.edu.co  

Hannah Baader
Project Leader (KHI)
Phone: +49 (0)30 266 422040
E-Mail: baader@khi.fi.it 

Nachiket Chanchani
Principal Investigator (University of Michigan & CSSSC)
E-Mail: nachiket@umich.edu 

 

Rosinka Chaudhuri
Principal Investigator (CSSSC)
E-Mail: rosinka@cssscal.org 

Alexander Herrera
Principal Investigator (Uniandes)
E-Mail: alherrer@uniandes.edu.com

Gerhard Wolf
Project Leader (KHI)
E-Mail: dirwolf@khi.fi.it 

 

Philip Geisler
Scientific Program Coordinator (KHI)
Phone: +49 (0)30 266 422041
E-Mail: philip.geisler@khi.fi.it 

Philip Geisler
Scientific Coordinator

Connected Teams
c/o 4A_Lab
Villa Parey
Sigismundstraße 4
10785 Berlin / Germany

Postal address:
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Connected Teams c/o 4A_Lab
Stauffenbergstraße 41
10785 Berlin / Germany

Phone: +49 (0)30 266 422041
E-Mail: connectedteams@khi.fi.it  

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