Britta Baumgarten
(1975-2018)

 

It is with deep regret that we inform of the death of colleague and researcher Britta Baumgarten.

 

Britta arrived at CIES in 2010 as a post-doctoral researcher, becoming an FCT researcher a few years later. She brought the best of her international training, and from the beginning she worked to create collaborations and spaces for dialogue with the various colleagues, in a spirit of solidarity, and far from any individualism. These were also the foundations of her research reflected in her empirical and theoretical contribution in the area of social movements. She has authored studies that have become central in this field, especially on crisis and austerity in Portugal and on the role of memory in contemporary mobilizations (as in the case of the memory of the Portuguese revolution).

 

Her work on the role of culture, understood both as socialization and as emotions, shapes her innovative analysis in the field of social movement studies. These reflections were gathered in the book of which she was co-editor "Conceptualizing Culture in Social Movement Research".

 

At CIES, Britta has always been determined to keep open spaces for discussion, such as the Monthly Seminar Social Movements and Political Action, which she has persistently followed even in the most difficult times she has gone through in recent years. Simply, with passion, because she believed that the university should be, above all, that. She was always available to welcome and mentor new researchers and students and participate in science outreach activities.

 

We are very grateful for the time we had with her, which will always be remembered for the intelligence, professionalism, loyalty and sensitivity she put in everything she did.

 


 

 

Memorial Prize

 Social Movement Studies Britta Baumgarten Memorial Prize 2022