Junior Fellows

Holds a PhD in social anthropology from the National Museum (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) and a master’s degree in ethnology and social anthropology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. She is a member of the Laboratory of Ritual Anthropology and Memory (LARMe) at the PPGAS- National Museum. She has fieldwork experience in the Médio Araguaia region and is involved in the collaborative project to design and establish the Museu Apyãwa-Tapirapé at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). She works as a long-term collaborator with the Apyãwa Indigenous Women’s Association (AMIAP) and supports the Apyãwa Indigenous People’s Coordination and Organisation (COPIAP) in the environmental monitoring project in partnership with the Brazil Fund (2024). Her areas of expertise include the anthropology of objects and rituals, indigenous ethnology, anthropological theory, and indigenous museums.

Project: Ype: The Itineraries of an Apyãwa-Tapirapé Mask (1960-2023)

Following ethnographic fieldwork among the Apyãwa-Tapirapé of Central Brazil, this project aims to investigate the development of a specific artefact of this people, the Ype (“big face”) mask. Evoking the historical enemies of the Apyãwa-Tapirapé, the mask can be found in the collections of various European, North American and Brazilian ethnographic museums. This study seeks to retrace the meanings of the circulation of the Ype mask, looking at two key moments: (i) the context in which the masks were first produced and sold outside the village in the 1960s, highighting a bond of conviviality and inequality; (ii) the current reception by the Apyãwa-Tapirapé of the digital images of the masks. It is hypothesised that the masks used in the rituals retain certain characteristics deliberately excluded from the masks produced for sale and that the making of ineffective objects, stored in museums, does not necessarily render them sterile. The relevance of these questions and the plausibility of these hypotheses are based on ethnographic research already carried out among the Apyãwa-Tapirapé, which empirically led to the approach suggested in this project. Additionally, debates on the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of materialities in a museum context have given rise to a wide-ranging debate between researchers and their interlocutors from various Amerindian peoples of the South American lowlands.

Main discipline: Anthropology

Main publications:

Coutinho, Ana (2023): “Politics of Devastation: Remarks on De-Democratization, Indigenous Peoples, and the Environment in Contemporary Brazil”, in: Bianchi, Bernardo; Chaloub, Jorge; Rangel, Patrícia; Wolf, Frieder Otto. (eds). Democracy and Brazil: Collapse and Regression, New York: Routledge, 194–207.

Coutinho, Ana G. N.; Pissolato, Elizabeth; Teixeira, P. H.; Tapirapé, K. (2024): Os caminhos do Museu Apyãwa: um processo de musealização em curso (trabalho estendido para o GT 76 da RBA, coordenado por Luísa Valentini e Aristóteles Barcelos).

Coutinho, Ana; Oliveira, Pedro; Tapurapé, Nivaldo (2023): “Produzindo a vida entre Terra, Escola e Museu: algumas notas sobre o processo de retomada apyãwa”, in: Pissolato, Elizabeth; Oliveira-Castro, Andréa (eds.), Políticas ameríndias de contracolonialidade no século XXI, Juiz de Fora: ed. UFJF, 30–51.

Coutinho, Ana et al. (2023): Memorial Museu Apyãwa-Tapirapé: Abordagem etnográfica e Estudo Preliminar Arquitetônico, Juiz de Fora: UFJF.

Coutinho, Ana (2021): Objetos rituais do povo Apyãwa/Tapirapé do Brasil Central (MT): a coleção Charles Wagley e os rituais na aldeia Tapi´Itãwa da Terra Indígena Urubu Branco, Rio de Janeiro: Museu Nacional.

PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2022), master’s in social anthropology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2016), and bachelor’s in social sciences from the State University of Maranhão (2013). He has experience in the fields of anthropology and sociology, with an emphasis on the following topics: rurality, traditional peoples and communities, agrarian conflicts, territories, and anti-Black violence.

Project: Race and Economic Development: Mapping Anti-Blackness in Planned Interventions based on the Babassu Economy in Maranhão, Brazil

This project aims to analyse how associations between economic development and anti-Blackness are related to planned interventions concerning the babaçu economy in Maranhão, Brazil, between 1920 and 1980. Through a discussion of the babaçu economy, it is possible to map different agents and public interventions, highlighting economic transactions and technical-political elaborations that link economic development to the racial belonging of individuals and communities, revealing the inseparability of Blackness and indignity in the rural world. To achieve this, it will be necessary to examine a dispersed set of political interventions and discourses in public and private institutions in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and São Luís, including lectures, bulletins, intervention projects, and reports found in various institutions such as the Maranhão Commercial Association, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Ministry of the Environment, Brazilian Institute of the Environment, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, as well as contributions from other prominent agents.

Main discipline: Sociology

Main publications:

Sousa, Igor Thiago Silva de (2024): “Vivendo o pós-cativeiro: proposições de quebradeiras de coco babaçu negras sobre territórios e alianças de libertação”, Revista ESA, 32, 1, 1–29.

Sousa, Igor Thiago Silva de (2023): “Raça, projetos de desenvolvimento econômico e quebradeiras de coco babaçu no Maranhão do século XX”, Simbiótica, 10, 2, 274–293.

Sousa, Igor Thiago Silva de (2022): “Corpos indignos: experimentos de racialização de povos e comunidades tradicionais pelo projeto de desenvolvimento nacional”, Revista ABPN, 14, 160–180.

Sousa, Igor Thiago Silva de (2021): “Mulheres negras e não-existência: quebradeiras de coco babaçu e reflexões críticas sobre o mundo”, Revista ABPN, 13, 36, 218–244.

Sousa, Igor Thiago Silva de (2019): “Um esboço sobre a emergência do Movimento Negro no Maranhão: rupturas e continuidades nas lutas étnico-raciais,” Simbiótica, 6, 2, 264–288.

tita (Letizia Patriarca) is a Collaborating Researcher at PAGU – Gender Studies Center at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. She earned a Joint PhD from the USP and the University of Bologna, conducting research between Brazil and Italy on the (im)possibilities of translating policies related to sex work. During her three years in Italy, she collaborated with NGOs, academic networks, and activist groups of sex workers, trans people, and migrants. Her research focuses on ethnographic translation processes, understood as openings for the affirmation of transnational dialogues that can effectively communicate policies impacting those engaged in sex work. Inspired by the multiple works of Gloria Anzaldúa, she is interested in bilingual elaborations, (im)possibilities of translation, creative expressions, and communicative forms that enable interdisciplinary, intersectional, and decolonial connections beyond the academic sphere.

Project: Between “ajuda” and “tratta”: Ethnographic and Intersectional Translation Processes between Brazil and Italy

I propose to engage with the debate on human trafficking in the Italian context by interrogating research methodologies and situating their production to affirm a transnational dialogue on policies related to sex work. I begin from the terms mobilised by Brazilian sex workers who circulate in the Italian sex markets to overcome dichotomies and rethink the so-called “anti-trafficking” programmes, which receive significant funding in Italy. In dialogue with an extensive Brazilian and international bibliography, I argue that framing the transits and migratory movements of certain people as the crime of “human trafficking” is an epistemological and geopolitical issue. To this, I add the methodological dimension, as taking into account the terms – in a broad sense – of people in transit can put another grammar into circulation. Considering the movement of Brazilian sex workers as transitory projects or even as collective ways of establishing transnational support networks can shift the terminological and epistemological structure, with material consequences for public policies that receive those who migrate within the Italian context.

Main discipline: Anthropology

Main publications:

Patriarca, Letizia (2023): “Puta”, “travesti” e “brasiliana”: Processos interseccionais de tradução e criminalização entre Brasil e Itália, São Paulo; Bologna: USP; Università di Bologna.

Oliveira, Amanda; Caroline Harumy; Souza, Dianne Cassiano de; Higa, Lais Miwa; Patriarca, Letizia (2021): ‘Quem ta aí?’ Diferenças e Desigualdades na Formação Docente EaD. In: Tecnologias na educação, São Paulo: Artesanato Educacional.

Patriarca, Letizia (2018): “Donas de casa, de prostituição: sobre as violências decorrentes da criminalização dos contextos destas práticas,” Revista de estudos empíricos em direito, 5, 3, 212–223.

Patriarca, Letizia (2017): “Pelo bairro: um exercício descritivo da prostituição de travestis no Jardim Itatinga”, Ponto Urbe, 1, 20, 1–20.

Fiori, Ana Letícia; Assensio, Cibele; Andrade, Fabiana; Teixeira, Jacqueline M.; Patriarca, Letizia; Bo, Talita L. Dal (2017): “O tempo e o vento: notas sobre a arte de burocratizar políticas de cotas na USP”, Revista de antropologia, 60, 1, 55–83.

Livia de Souza Lima holds a PhD at the University of Bielefeld, with her research that explores the political representation of Black women and their movement toward institutional occupation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Holding an MA in politics, economics, and philosophy from the University of Hamburg, her expertise lies in radical democracy, gender and intersectionality, critical race studies, political representation, and discourse analysis. She a co-founder of the Hamburg-based feminist collective Miradas Feministas.

Project: Negotiating Difference: An Analysis of the Black Caucus in the Brazilian National Congress

In November 2023, Brazil formed its first Congressional Black Caucus, marking a historic effort to address systemic racial inequality. This caucus unites Black representatives across party lines to advance a shared social justice agenda, emphasizing the collective mobilization necessary to challenge institutional barriers. Despite representing the majority of the population, Black Brazilians are still a minority in Congress, reflecting persistent racial inequities in political representation. This study seeks to analyze the caucus’s emergence, legislative priorities, and internal negotiations, focusing on the intersectional dynamics of race, gender, and ideology. Drawing on Political Discourse Analysis, it examines how collective action is shaped by both solidarity and tension within a multi-partisan framework. The theoretical approach integrates conviviality, radical democratic theory, and intersectionality to explore how racial agendas intersect with institutional politics, offering insights into the transformative potential and challenges of coalition-building in advancing racial and social justice.

Main discipline: Political and Social Science

Main publications:

Silva, Mayra da; Souza Lima, Livia de; e Fabris, Ligia (2022): “Violence Against Black Women in Politics: Experiences and Testimonials from Brazil,” Femina Politica, Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 31, 2, 57–71.

Souza Lima, Livia de; Roth, Julia; e Quezada, Edith (2024): Feminisms in Movement: Theories and Practices from the Americas, Bielefeld: Transcript.

Souza Lima, Livia de (2024): “The Feminist and Decolonial Pedagogy of Lélia Gonzalez and Sueli Carneiro.”, in: Feminisms in Movement: Theories and Practices from the Americas, Bielefeld: Transcript.

Souza Lima, Livia de (2024): “Feminismo Negro (Black Feminism),” in: Galetti, Camila; Rivetti, Jéssica Melo (eds.), Feminismos em Movimento, Belo Horizonte: Editora Luas.

Souza Lima, Livia de (2024): “The Politics of Presence of Black Women Politicians in Brazil: Reclaiming ‘Political Representation’ as a Territory to be Occupied”, in: Kaltmeier, Olaf; Volmer, Ann-Kathrin; Peters, Mario (eds.), Environments of Inequality: Crisis, Conflicts, Comparisons, Biefeld: Kipu Verlag.