Mecila

Remote Fellows

Ana Carolina Torquato

Ana Carolina Torquato holds a PhD in Literary Studies from UFPR with a doctoral exchange programme at the Universität Potsdam and an MA in Literary Studies and Comparative Literature from the universities of Sheffield, Santiago de Compostela and Nova de Lisboa. Ana was awarded a BA in Literary Studies from UFPR. Her main areas of interest are literature, animal studies, disaster studies and ecocriticism. In her current research project, Ana is working on the representation of the relationship between human and non-human animals in zoos and aquariums in post-war Brazilian literature. Her main focus is power relations and the nature of animal agency established between human beings and species living in captivity.

Main discipline: Literary Studies

Caio Urban Narratives

Caio da Silveira Fernandes

Caio da Silveira Fernandes holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and an MA in Geography from the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR). He was a Fulbright fellow at the University of Kentucky during his doctoral studies, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at CEBRAP’s International Postdoctoral Program (IPP), as well as associated researcher of the research cluster Mobilidades, Teorias, Temas e Métodos (MTTM) at USP. His primary research area consists of ethnographic approaches to migration, citizenship, and inequalities in urban spaces.

Main discipline: Geography

Maya Manzi

Maya Manzi is a professor of Human Geography at the Centre for Agricultural, Environmental and Biological Sciences of the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (CCAAB-UFRB) in Cruz das Almas. She holds a PhD in Geography from Clark University (USA); a Master’s degree in Geography from McGill University (Canada); and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Université Laval (Canada). She did postdoctoral action-research for the Graduate Program of Architecture and Urbanism at the Federal University of Bahia (PPGAU-FAUFBA) in Salvador (2014-2016) and a second postdoctoral research at Mecila (Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America) in São Paulo (2017-2019). She was a professor and researcher for the Graduate Program in Territory, Environment, and Society (PPGTAS) and
for the undergraduate program in Geography at the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL) in Salvador, Bahia (2019-2022). She is a member of the National Network of Researchers in (Socio)Environmental Geography (RP-G(S)A) and of the Brazilian Institute of Urban Law (IBDU). She works in the areas of critical geography, political ecology, and urban studies with a focus on territorial and environmental conflicts, insurgent planning, the right to the city, environmental justice, and decoloniality.

Main discipline: Geography

Simone Toji

Simone Toji holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews, an MA in Sociology and Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a BA in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo. She is the author of the forthcoming monograph The immensity of being singular: Approaching migrant lives through resonance. She is a teaching fellow at Belas Artes University and an official at the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN). Her current projects explore questions in migration studies, ethnography, cosmopolitanism, urban studies, and cultural heritage.

Main discipline: Anthropology