Senior Fellows

Yves Cohen is Directeur d’Études (Professor) at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He was a visiting scholar at the Center of European Studies of Harvard University in 2018-2019 as well as several Brazilian Universities, including the USP, and the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp).

He has devoted his work to the historical and analytical study of practices. His current interests are the history and present state of influencing practices (advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations, communication, fake news, etc.) and the comparative study of horizontality in social life and social movements.

Main Discipline: History

Selected publications:
Cohen, Yves; Chateauraynaud, Francis (2016): Histoires Pragmatiques, Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS.
Cohen, Yves (2016): “Qui a encore besoin du charisme? Ou vers une histoire politique des sens”, in: Sensibilités. Histoire, critique & sciences sociales, 1.
Cohen, Yves (2013): Le Siècle des Chefs. Une histoire transnationale du commandement et de l’autorité (1890-1940), Paris: Ed. Amsterdam.
Cohen, Yves (2010): “Circulatory Localities: The Example of Stalinism in the 1930s”, in: Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 11, 1. (translation by Stephanie Lin)

João Reis is Full Professor of the History Department of the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Brazil. He was a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Princeton, Brandeis, Texas (Austin), Harvard and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). He has also been a visiting researcher at various institutions: the University of London, Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences (Stanford), National Humanities Center (North Carolina-USA), Harvard University, Humboldt Universität (Berlin), among others. He is a Lifetime Foreign Honorary Member of the American Historical Association. He has been a member of the History Advisory Committee of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil on several occasions, of which he is a top-level (1A) researcher. Among his awards and distinctions, in 2014 he received the Joint Works Prize of the Bahia Academy of Letters (Academia de Letras da Bahia) and in 2017 the Machado de Assis Award of the Academia Brasileira de Letras for his body of work.

At Mecila, Prof. Reis worked on the subject of slaves who owned slaves in the city of Salvador in the 19th century, the capital of Bahia province in Brazil. In this context, he analysed the circumstances which allowed the social mobility that allowed these slaves to become masters.

Main discipline: History

Research areas:
History of the Empire of Brazil and Atlantic history
Social and cultural history of Africa, slavery and traffic
Slave resistance
Social movements

Selected publications:
Reis, João (2019): Ganhadores: a greve negra de 1857 na Bahia, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Reis, João (2015): Divining Slavery and Freedom: The Story of Domingos Sodré, an African Priest in Nineteenth-Century Brazil, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Reis, João; Gomes, Flavio dos Santos ; Carvalho, Marcus (2010): O alufá Rufino: tráfico, escravidão e liberdade no Atlântico negro (c. 1823 – c. 1853), São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Reis, João (2008): Domingos Sodré, um sacerdote africano: escravidão, liberdade e candomblé na Bahia do século XIX, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Reis, João (2003): Death is a Festival: Funeral Rites and Rebellion in Nineteenth-Century Brazil, North Carolina University Press.
Reis, João (2003): Rebelião Escrava no Brasil: A História do Levante dos Malês em 1835 (Edição revista e ampliada), São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.

Dr Alejandra Mailhe is an investigator from CONICET and a Professor of the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Argentina, in the area of ‘History of social ideas in Argentina and Latin America’. She carried out her postdoctoral research at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She was awarded first place in the Scientific Trajectory Awards, granted by the UNLP in 2010. Among other institutions, Dr Mailhe is a member of the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP /CONICET). Her research interests are centred on the conceptions projected by intellectuals upon popular cultures in Argentina and Latin America between the end of the 19th century and the 1950s.

Main Discipline: History

Research areas:
History of social ideas in Argentina and Latin America in the first half of the 20th century
Comparative Latin American studies: Argentina/Brazil/Mexico/Peru
Indigenisms and African-Americanisms
History of Latin American anthropology
Epistemological paradigm changes: From positivism to culturalism
Aesthetic tensions regarding the ascension of avant-garde movements

Selected publications:
Mailhe, Alejandra (2019): “Tópicos discursivos y debates en torno al alcance del concepto de ‘autonomía’ en la Reforma Universitaria”, in: Cuadernos Americanos, México: Segunda época, CIALC, UNAM.
Mailhe, Alejandra (2018): “La colección ‘Humanior’ y la formación de un lectorado americanista” en Prismas, Bernal: UNQ, 22.
Mailhe, Alejandra (2018): “El mestizaje indo-hispánico en la educación estética de las masas”, in: Estudios del ISHIR, Rosario: UNR/CONICET, 22.
Mailhe, Alejandra (2017): “Ricardo Rojas: viaje al interior, la cultura popular y el inconsciente”, in: Anclajes, La Pampa: Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, 21.
Mailhe, Alejandra (2017): “Archivos de psiquiatría y criminología (1902-1912): concepciones del sujeto femenino y de la alteridad social“, in: Colección digital “Biblioteca Orbis Tertius”, La Plata, FAHCE, UNLP.

Gabriel Kessler holds a PhD in Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. He is a Professor at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Argentina and a researcher at CONICET. Prof. Kessler was awarded a Konex prize in Sociology due to his professional trajectory in the decade of 2004-2015. His research field comprises the social question, inequality and violence. His books include La Nueva Pobreza en la Argentina (with A. Minujin); La Experiencia escolar fragmentada; Sociología del delito amateur; Neoliberalism and National Imagination (with A. Grimson); El sentimiento de Inseguridad. Sociología del temor al delito, Individuación, precariedad y riesgo (with R. Castel); Controversias sobre la desigualdad; and Muertes que Importan. Una mirada sociohistórica sobre los casos que marcaron la Argentina reciente (2018, Siglo XXI).

At Mecila, Prof. Kessler developed a research project on/initiative dealing with micro social relations in Argentina in comparison with other countries of Latin America and the Global South. In this context, he addressed themes such as the differences found among social networks across different social groups; the understanding of the concept of social capital; and forms of sociability where neither capital nor exchange are at stake.

Main Discipline: Sociology

Research areas:
Changes in the social structure of Latin America
Socio-political reactions

Recent Publications:
Gayol, Sandra; Kessler, Gabriel (2018): Muertes que Importan. Una mirada sociohistórica sobre los casos que marcaron la Argentina reciente, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI editores.
Kessler, Gabriel (ed.) (2016): La Sociedad Argentina Hoy. Radiografía de una nueva estructura, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI editores.
Kessler, Gabriel (2016): “Ideas y acciones en un contexto de cambio constante”, in: Faur, Eleonor (eds.), Repensar la inclusión social, Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual, 49 – 62.
Kessler, Gabriel; Núñez, Pedro (2017): “La jeunesse rurale en Amérique latine”, in: Problemes d’Amerique Latine, 105, 43 – 56.

Raquel Gil Montero holds a PhD in History from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. She is a researcher from CONICET, in the Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. E. Ravignani (Universidad de Buenos Aires). She has been granted research funding from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, María Elena Cassiet Fellowship, the National Geographic Association (USA), from Tyssen, the Alexander von Humboldt and Gerda Henkel foundations and from DAAD and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), among others. She has been the Director of the journal Población & Sociedad since 2009. She has also been the Vice-President of the Asociación Argentina de Investigadores en Historia (Argentinian Association of History Researchers) since 2017. She has taken part and is a member of different institutions and international groups such as the Panel Científico de Demografía Histórica of IUSSP (International Union for the Scientific Study of Population) and the Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations 1500-2000 (Amsterdam).

At Mecila, Prof. Gil Montero developed a study on labour relations in the colonial context of Latin America, exploring the different forms forced labour acquired, and how race or ‘ethnicity’ played a role in such organization. In particular, she has addressed the region of Charcas, present-day Bolivia, in the 17th century, observing the organization of the forced mining labour.

Main Discipline: History

Research areas:
Colonial labour world
Mining history
History of the indigenous population of today’s Bolivia and north of Argentina between the 16th and 19th centuries

Recent publications:
Gil Montero, Raquel (2018): “Entre el trabajo libre y forzado: los yanaconas rurales de Charcas (Bolivia) en el siglo XVII”, in: Colonial Latin American Review, 27, 3.
Gil Montero, Raquel (2018): “Migración y minería en el corregimiento de Carangas (actual Bolivia), siglo XVII”, in: Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas, 55.
Gil Montero, Raquel (2017): “Regional Impact of Mining Activity during Colonial Times in the Highlands of Southern Bolivia”, in: International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 21 (2).
Gil Montero, Raquel (2015): Ciudades efímeras. El ciclo minero de la plata en Lípez (Bolivia), siglos XVI-XIX, La Paz: IFEA – PLURAL.

Research areas:
Sociology of the public space, collective mobilizations and public problems
Ethnography of associations and NGOs
Field research methodology
Social sciences and phenomenology
History of social sciences in the USA

Selected publications:
Cefaï ,Daniel; Terzi, Cédric (eds.) (2012): L’Expérience des problèmes publics, Paris: Éditions de l’EHESS, (collection Raisons Pratiques, 22).
Cefaï, Daniel; Berger, Mathieu; Gayet-Viaud, Carole (eds.) (2011): Du civil au politique. Ethnographies du vivre ensemble, Bruxelles: Peter Lang.
Cefaï, Daniel; Mello, Marco Antônio da Silva; Berocan, Felipe; Veiga, Felipe, Mota, Fábio Reis (eds.) (2011): Arenas públicas. Por uma etnografia da vida associativa, Niterói-Rio de Janeiro: EdUFF.
Cefaï, Daniel; Gardella, Édouard (2011): L’Urgence sociale en action. Ethnographie du Samusocial de Paris, Paris: La Découverte, (Collection Recherches).
Cefaï Daniel (2007): Pourquoi se mobilise-t-on ? Théories de l’action collective, Paris: La Découverte, (Collection Recherches).
Cefaï, Daniel (2003): L’Enquête de terrain, Paris: La Découverte, (Collection Recherches).

Seth Racusen holds a PhD in Political Science from the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT, USA). He is Associate Professor of Political Science and Criminal Justice at Anna Maria College, Paxton (USA). Formerly, he was a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Political and Social Studies at the Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ, Brazil) and Fellow at the Dubois Institute of Harvard University (USA). He has secured grants from the American Political Science Association, the US Fulbright Commission, and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Dr. Racusen is a recognized source on Brazilian racial discrimination law and affirmative action. His research interests include Brazilian national ideology, racial identity, racism, everyday citizenship and resistance, transitional justice, and comparative racisms.

Main Discipline: Political Science

Selected publications:
Racusen, Seth (2019): “On the Jurisprudence of Workplace Discrimination”, in: Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito da Universidade Federal do Ceará, 39, 1.
Racusen, Seth (2016): “Kabengele Munanga”, in: Jr., Henry Louis Gates; Knight, Franklin K. (eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Racusen, Seth (2013): “The Ideology of the Brazilian Nation and the Brazilian Legal Theory of Racial Discrimination”, in: Harris, Angela P. (ed.), Race and Equality Law, Routledge.
Racusen, Seth (2012): “The Grammar of Color Identity in Brazil”, in: Reiter, Bernd and Eison, Kimberly (eds.), Re-Examining the Black Atlantic: Afro-Descendants and Development, Michigan: Michigan State University Press.

Gregory Fernando Pappas is Professor of Philosophy at Texas A & M University. In 2018 he was Distinguished Research Fellow for the Latino Research Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. Pappas works within the Latin American philosophy and Pragmatist traditions in ethics and socialpolitical philosophy.

Dr Pappas has been the recipient of a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, the William James and Latin American Thought prizes by the American Philosophical Association, and the Mellow Prize by the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP). He is the Editor-in-chief of The Inter-American Journal of Philosophy. He was a Fulbright scholar in Argentina and President of the SAAP.

Main Discipline: Philosophy

Selected publications:
Pappas, Gregory Fernando (2018): “What is Going On? Where Do We Go from Here? Should the Souls of White Folks Be Saved?”, in: The Pluralists, 13, 1.
Pappas, Gregory Fernando (2017): “The Limitations and Dangers of Decolonial Philosophies: Lessons from Zapatista Luis Villoro”, in: Radical Philosophy Review, 20, 2.
Pappas, Gregory Fernando (2017): “Zapatismo, Luis Villoro, and American Pragmatism on Democracy, Power, and Injustice”, in: The Pluralists, 12, 1.
Pappas, Gregory Fernando (2011): Pragmatism in the Americas. Fordham: Fordham University Press.

Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez is Professor of General Sociology at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. She studied Sociology, Political Sciences and Romance Studies. She received the Augsburg Research Prize for Intercultural Studies in 1999. She was Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester (UK) and Assistant Professor at the Universität
Hamburg.

She held Visiting Fellowships and Professorships at the University of Alberta (Canada), University of London (UK), the Five College Women’s Studies Research Centre (USA), the University of Albuquerque and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC, USA). She is Adjunct Faculty Professor at the University of Alberta and a Visiting Professor at Nelson Mandela University (South Africa). Broadly, her work engages with affective labour, the structural violence of EU migration control policies, and institutional racism.

Main Discipline: Sociology

Selected publications:

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación (2018): “Antifeminism and Racism in Times of  usterity”, in: Winkel, Heidemarie and Tuzcu, Pinar (eds.), Women’s Studies International Forum, 68, 139-141.

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación (2018): “Care Work – International Perspectives and Reflections”, in: Aulenbacher, Brigitte; Liebig, Brigitte (eds.), Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 1.

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación; Anne Tate, Shirley (eds.)(2015): Creolizing Europe. Legacies and Transformations, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación (2010): Migration, Domestic Work and Affect. New York: Routledge.

Susana Durão is an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp).  She was a Visiting Scholar at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais of the Universidade de Lisboa and the Summer Program in Social Sciences of the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University.  She has coordinated the international research project “Policing and Urban Imaginaries: New Security Formats in Southern Cities” (2015-2019). Durão has secured grants from the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton (USA), Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil), and the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations (Brazil). She received the Dedication to Undergraduate Teaching Prize from Unicamp in 1999.

Her areas of interest are public and private security, hospitality security, urban violence, policing work and inequality, plural policing studies, and police training from an urban ethnographic perspective. She has conducted fieldwork in Portugal, Brazil, and African Lusophone contexts.

Main Discipline: Anthropology

Selected publications:
Durão, Susana (2020): “Bolsonaro’s Brazil and the Police Fetish”, in: Hot Spots, Fieldsights, January 28.
Durão, Susana (2017): “Detention: Police Discretion Revisited”, in: Fassin, Didier (ed.), Writing the World of Policing. The Difference Ethnography Makes, London & Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Durão, Susana (2016): “Brazilian Police: Cultural and Spriritual Battles”, in: The Funambulist – Special Issue: Police of Space and Bodies, 8.
Durão, Susana (2016): Esquadra de Polícia. Lisboa: Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos.