Juliana Lugão is a journalist who holds a master’s degree in Literature from PUC-Rio and a Doctorate in Literary Studies from Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), both of which were funded by CNPq. Between 2021 and 2025, she conducted research in the Postgraduate Programme in Literary Science at UFRJ, funded by FAPERJ. During her doctoral studies and postdoctoral research fellowship, she was a visiting researcher at the Walter Benjamin Archives in Berlin, with fundings by CNPq, DAAD and FAPERJ. She has published work focusing primarily on literary translation, interartistic and interdisciplinary relations in literature, and the work and manuscripts of the German author Walter Benjamin, including translations of his work.

juliana.lugao@fu-berlin.de
Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615
04015-051 São Paulo, Brazil

Our Events and Outreach Coordinator has a degree in Social Communication from ECA-USP, and a postgraduate (lato sensu) degree in Business Administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas. She worked in the publishing market before turning to corporate communications when she joined the communications team of the Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Brasil-Alemanha. She joined Mecila’s team in São Paulo in 2018.

+55 11 55740399 | 118
melanie.metzen@fu-berlin.de
Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615
04015-051 São Paulo, Brazil

Livia Azevedo Lima is an editor, interdisciplinary scholar, and film curator. With over a decade in publishing, she has held positions at the publishing house Cosac Naify, the photography magazine ZUM, the journal Novos Estudos from the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap), and has coordinated the Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop. She holds a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of São Paulo and researches cinema, literature, and visual culture. In 2025, she was a visiting professor in the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a scientific editor at Mecila, responsible for publications in Portuguese.

+55 11 55740399 | 118
livia.lima@fu-berlin.de
Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615
04015-051 São Paulo, Brazil

Vitória Zandonadi is an undergraduate student in Social Sciences at USP. In the first semester of 2023, she had the opportunity to participate in an academic mobility exchange program at Sciences Po, on the Reims campus in France. Currently, Vitória is developing a research project in Urban Anthropology. Since June 2024, she has been part of the Mecila team as an intern.

+55 11 55740399 | 118
vitoria.zandonadi@fu-berlin.de
Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615
04015-051 São Paulo, Brazil

Lucas da Cunha is a Social Sciences student pursuing a bachelor’s degree at USP. In 2023, he was a visiting student at the Université d’Ottawa in Canada for one semester. He worked as a research assistant in the “Religions in the Contemporary World” research nucleus at CEBRAP. In June 2024, he joined the Mecila team in São Paulo as an intern.

lucas.cunha@fu-berlin.de
Centro de Difusão Internacional – USP
Av. Prof. Lúcio Martins Rodrigues, 310
Butantã, São Paulo – SP, Brazil

Roberta Hesse is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at USP, holds a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from USP, and a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from USP. Currently, she is also an associate researcher at “Centro de Estudos Ameríndios (CEstA/USP)”. She carried out one research internships and an academic exchange year at the University of Cologne. She has also worked with project management at the Associação Anna Laura. Since April 2022, she has been part of the Mecila team as a fellows assistant.

+55 11 55740399 | 118
roberta.hesse@fu-berlin.de
Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615
04015-051 São Paulo, Brazil

Our Scientific Editor, responsible for the Working Papers Series and other publications, holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). He was chief editor of Novos Estudos Cebrap (2010-15), visiting researcher at the University of Chicago (2008), associate researcher at the Philosophy Department of Unicamp (2018), and postdoctoral researcher at the Philosophy Department of the Universidade de São Paulo (2019-20). He joined Mecila’s coordination office team in 2020.

+55 11 55740399 | 118
joaquim.toledo@fu-berlin.de
Rua Morgado de Mateus, 615
04015-051 São Paulo, Brazil