Coordination

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

Milagros Pacco studied History and Digital Humanities and obtained her master’s degree (2015) at the Universität zu Köln (UzK). During her studies, she worked as a student assistant in the department for Iberian and Latin American History at the Institute of History of UzK, in the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, and in the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) at UzK.
She has been a research assistant at the department for Iberian and Latin American History at the Institute of History of UzK since July 2017. As a research assistant, she is involved with academic and coordination tasks and developing and establishing the Research Data Management infrastructure at the Maria Sibylla Merian Centre (Mecila) at UzK.

+49-221-470-5480
milagros.pacco@uni-koeln.de

Kompetenznetz Lateinamerika – Mecila c/o Iberische und Lateinamerikanische Abt. Historisches Institut
Universität zu Köln Albertus-Magnus-Platz | 50923 Köln, Germany

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

Sofie Steinberger studied Regional Studies of Latin America at the UzK and is currently a PhD student at the Historical Institute of the UzK and the University of Meknes. From 2017 to 2020 she was a Fellow of the a.r.t.e.s. EUmanities Program (Horizon 2020: MSCA) and spent 18 months doing research in Spain and Morocco. She has been active in various areas of scientific coordination and historical-political education. Among other things, she coordinated the UzK Forum “Ethnicity as a Political Resource”, worked in youth education, for the Academy for Conflict Transformation in Bonn, and is currently curating an exhibition for the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. Since August 2022, she is part of the team of the Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America in Cologne (UzK).

ssteinb1@uni-koeln.de

Universität zu Köln Albertus-Magnus-Platz | 50923 Köln, Germany

Isabela Maia holds a bachelor’s degree in Languages and Literature from Universidade Estadual Paulista / FCLAr (2017) and a master’s
degree in Literary Studies from the same institution (2020). She is a doctoral candidate in Literary Studies at the UzK, affiliated with the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne and the Luso-Brazilian Institute at UzK. Currently, she is an academic assistant on the Mecila team.

imaiape1@uni-koeln.de

Universität zu Köln Albertus-Magnus-Platz | 50923 Köln, Germany

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

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

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

Puo-an Francisca Wu Fu has a Master of Arts degree in European literatures from the HU Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin) and is a current doctoral candidate in romance-language literature at the University of Potsdam. Prior to joining Mecila’s Berlin Office, she worked as a translator and interpreter, as well as in the International Affairs Office of the Excellence Cluster “Image Knowledge Gestaltung.”

She was the Centre’s Administrative Assistant in Berlin during the Preliminary Phase and joined Mecila’s academic staff in 2020.

puo-an.wu@fu-berlin.de
Freie Universität Berlin
ZI Lateinamerika-Institut
Geschäftstelle Boltzmannstr. 1
Raum 006 | 14195 Berlin, Germany