Dr. Sebastián Eduardo Dávila

Sebastián Eduardo Dávila’s current research focuses on the relation between syncretism and contemporary art throughout the Americas. His dissertation deals with art practices from postwar Guatemala with a focus on materiality, on the basis of which he is currently preparing his book "Making the Cosmos. The Practice of Art in Postwar Guatemala". His publications and editorial work address the relation between art and materiality, topography, Indigeneity, religion/spirituality, and violence.

His undergraduate seminars explore artistic practices and theories in dialogue with artists, curators, and political actors, with a focus on the tension, for example, between art and violence, or art and Indigeneity.
His graduate seminars deal with the history of political theories, the contexts of emergence as well as frames of reference of situated concepts, and their relation to art and cultiral pratices, particularly in the Americas. 

Sebastián Eduardo Dávila studied art history and film studies in Jena, Berlin, and Mexico City, and formed part of the research training group “Cultures of Critique” at the Leuphana University (Lüneburg). In 2023, he was a Visiting Student Researcher at Stanford University, and between 2023-2025 a fellow at the research network “Cambridge Visual Culture”. He is an editor at the journal "kritische berichte: Zeitschrift für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften"., and part of the political group “VOCES de Guatemala en Berlín”.