"Five questions and one cafézinho" with Ursula Dahmen

1. Brazil Centre: How did the research stay at USP contributed to your research, to your scientific trajectory?

Ursula Dahmen: It was super interesting to go to Brazil for my own research, because I could gain a completely different perspective on the own legal system. I am from the law area and my studies are located at the interface between law sciences and urban planning. Actually, sometimes one think: I have the national view of the own legal system, what am I supposed to learn from other systems? However, there, I was actually able to work out peculiarities of a legal system and get ideas on what could perhaps be implemented from it. And I was particularly lucky because my supervisor, from the Faculty of Law, could give me insights into this area, and his wife, from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, gave me an understanding of urban planning, so that I could analyse directly both areas.

São Paulo was also interesting for me, because you find an urban structure there that you don't find anywhere here in Germany, with dense constructions that goes very high up, which you don't find here in any big city. I was able to see that for myself in the city tours. I was also sometimes accompanied by the professor, who explained things to me. Many things were much clearer to me afterwards than here (in Germany).

2. Brazil Centre: Did you face difficulties in this experience?

Ursula Dahmen: I've been to São Paulo twice to perform research stays. The first time was in 2018, and I had a little bit of difficulty finding a place to live, because I didn't know exactly where to search, where I might find something for students or if I could live together with other people in a shared flat. So, I had a bit of a hard time with that and I also didn't know in which neighbourhood I should or shouldn't live in São Paulo. Because you have to be careful not to consider just any neighbourhood, to make sure you live close to a metro station in order to get around easily. So, I had to figure that out for myself first, but then I also got information about it and it worked out quite well afterwards. But I would say that that was one difficulty I had before the trip.

3. Brazil Centre: how did this research stay affect your personal life?

Ursula Dahmen: In that sense, the stay was very valuable. I made contacts that still exist today: not only in the academic field, but I also really made friends with whom I can always exchange ideas.

I had never been to Brazil before. So I got to know a whole new culture; listened to music that I had no contact with before; tried food that I had never eaten before: overall really nice experiences. I learned a new language, I didn't know Portuguese before, and the stay motivated me so much that I continued to study here at the University of Münster and took courses. I definitely brought this experience with me.

4. Brazil Centre: Would you recommend this experience to others? Why?

Ursula Dahmen: Yes! Definitely yes. Even if you think that you shouldn't get involved in other research, still, from other cultures is always something valuable, because you simply get different insights, different input, a different perspective on your own research. I believe that makes us more creative, especially when you talk about it and look at it with other people who have gone through a different study system. I think that's always very valuable and especially when you are at the point of doing your own research, free in a way that you might not be otherwise, that you can perhaps seize such opportunities to do a research stay. So, if you have the opportunity to incorporate that into your research somehow, then I would recommend that to anyone.

5. Brazil Centre: Lost or found in translation? Can you translate this experience with a word, a sentence or a quote?

Ursula Dahmen: Well, "lost in translation" really made me think about how lost one is regarding the language. I was always lost! My experience in Brazil was that you always find someone to help you. I might have been "lost in translation", but I was always found again, I was always brought back to my path. I really had a great experience in Brazil.

Brasilien-Zentrum: Now we move on to our Cafézinho moment. Do you have your coffee there?

Ursula Dahmen: Sure thing! (lacht)

As you already know, the cafézinho moment is when you feel free to tell us about a blunder, an anecdote or a remarkable story about your experience in Brazil. In short, a story you tell over a cup of coffee.

Ursula Dahmen: Well, one story that I just found really nice, happened right at the beginning of the first stay in 2018, when I was still very new in São Paulo. I hadn't been to a comparable big city before, the dimensions, everything was just new, different. In the first few days, I was in the city centre of São Paulo at the library, to study there. I had to find out where I could study and so on, and then I wanted to go home again and, yeah, I couldn't find the metro station (laughs).

I was in the city centre – and some people had told me beforehand: "when it gets dark, you definitely have to be out of the city centre again, it's too dangerous". Then it got dark. I really thought like: "this can't be true!". I walked in circles over and over again. I somehow couldn't manage to find this metro station on googlemaps. I got a bit scared at that moment and then, a woman who worked in the library came up to me, recognised me in a city of twenty million people and asked me if I needed help and couldn't find my way. Then she showed me the way.

So, right before, I thought: "Why on earth did you come to this city (laughs), where so much concrete was built, what do you actually want here? So many people and now you are one of them". And then I realised, yeah, here you can also make personal contacts, you can find yourself again and people will help you too. From then on, things really went well in São Paulo. When the woman came to me and asked if I didn't know the right way, that was quite lovely, I thought, really helpful, nice.

Brasilien-Zentrum: Then "lovely, helpful and nice" are words that can "translate" your experience. Now you are "found in translation" again!

Ursula Dahmen: Yeah! (laughs)

Brazil Centre: Ursula, thank you for this testimonial. It was very nice to hear you telling your experiences with such joy. We are happy that you had such a wonderful experience in São Paulo and congratulate you on your successful stay at the USP. We wish you all the best for your professional and private future!