Senior Fellows

Benjamin Junge is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at SUNY New Paltz. His research focuses on Brazil’s “once-rising poor”, a group that saw significant social and economic mobility in the early 21st century but later faced growing precarity due to economic and political crises. Employing interdisciplinary methods from anthropology, sociology, political science, and history, he contributes to discussions on class mobility, identity, and poverty reduction in Brazil and Latin America. His current project, “‘Family is Everything’: Generational Friction, Social Media, and Political Polarization at Election-Time in Recife, Brazil” explores family dynamics and class identities among Brazil’s once-rising poor, with a focus on social media’s role during political crises. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation (USA) and the Fulbright Commission of Brazil. Dr. Junge is committed to interdisciplinary research and aims to contribute to global networks addressing social issues related to inequality and conviviality.

Project: Navigating Precarity: Familial Friction, Class Identification, and Urban Mobility among Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor

The proposed research investigates class identification among Brazil’s “once-rising poor”, a demographic that experienced upward social, economic, and geographic mobility during the early 21st century, followed by increased precarity due to economic, political, and cultural crises. Grounded in anthropological inquiry, the study employs interdisciplinary methodologies, including ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, and survey methods, to explore the tensions and dynamics within these families, particularly as they navigate political polarization and the influence of social media. The research focuses on Recife, Brazil, examining how intra-familial relationships, emergent class identities, and urban mobility intersect with broader societal changes. A key aspect of the study is the exploration of how social media intensifies or mitigates political and generational frictions within families, highlighting the role of digital platforms in shaping political subjectivities. Additionally, the research delves into the spatial dimensions of class identity, investigating how access to urban spaces influences class aspirations and identifications. This project contributes to understanding the lived experiences of Brazil’s “once-rising poor” and offers insights into the broader themes of conviviality and inequality.

Main discipline: Anthropology

Main publications:

Junge, Benjamin (2021): “‘Family Is Everything’: Generational Tensions as a Work-Class Household from Recife, Brazil, Contemplates the 2018 Presidential Elections,” in: Junge, Benjamin; Mitchell, Sean T.; Jarrin, Alvaro; Cantero, Lucia (eds.), Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope, Despair, and Resistance in Brazil, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 25–37.

Junge, Benjamin; Mitchell, Sean T.; Klein, Charles; and Micheli, David De (2022): “What Happened to the ‘New Middle Class’? The 2016 BORP (Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor) Survey”, Latin American Research Review, 57, 3, 573–589.

Junge, Benjamin; Mitchell, Sean T.; Klein, Charles H.; Spearly, Matthew (2022): “Mobility Interrupted: A New Framework for Understanding Anti-Left Sentiment Among Brazil’s ‘Once-Rising Poor’”, Latin American Politics and Society, 65, 2, 1–30.

Junge, Benjamin; Pereira, Pamella Liz Nunes; Chiarelli, Raisa Lassance (2020): “New Identities for a ‘New Middle Class’: Media Incitements to Class Subjectivity in Brazil, 2008–2012 [PT] Novas Identidades Para Uma ‘Nova Classe Média’: Incitações Midiáticas à Subjetividade de Classe No Brasil, 2008–2012”, Eikon, 1, 7, 63–76.

Junge, Benjamin; Tavares, Álvaro Prado Aguiar (2020): “Subjetividades móveis: Sentidos de periferia e percepções da crise entre motoristas de Uber em Recife,” Novos Estudos CEBRAP, 39, 1, 103–23.

Hanna Nohe is Assistant Professor at the university of Gießen. She studies Romance Literature from a comparative and transnational perspective. In her doctoral thesis (at the universities of Bonn, Paris-IV and Florence), she analysed the construction of European cultural identities in 18th century epistolary travel fiction (Fingierte Orientalen erschaffen Europa, 2018). Her second book examines the socio-economic perspective of the migrant subject in contemporary narratives from the Global South (Migrierende Subjekte in romanischen Literaturen der Welt, 2024). Her present research focuses on how and to what extent literature and film convey protagonism to the socially and globally marginalised.

Project: Conviviality with Social Hierarchies in Contemporary Latin American and Carribbean “Waste” Narratives

Abstract

This project is based on two observations about waste: on the one hand, it is material considered disposable by some, while for others it is still usable due to a lack of alternatives. On the other hand, it takes up the question of who can speak (Spivak) and is heard in society. It proposes to analyse contemporary narratives – literary texts and films – that try to convey the perspective of those who survive by collecting, recycling, and selling rubbish in Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba. It will focus on the interaction of different social classes in the production of works such as Quarto de despejo (1960) by Carolina Maria de Jesus, Boca de lixo (1993) by Eduardo Coutinho, El Rey de la Habana (1999) by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, the film adaptation (2015) by Agustí Villaronga, Noches vacías (2003) by Washington Cucurto and the crime chronicle ¿Quién mató a Diego Duarte? (2010) by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz. Concepts of power dynamics in a postcolonial and global context (Bhabha, Bourdieu, Butler, Ferdinand, Ribeiro) will be used. The aim is to highlight various dimensions of conviviality (Ette): with and beyond social hierarchies, and with the environment. Furthermore, changes at the temporal level concerning the awareness of social hierarchies and inequalities will be observed.

Main discipline: Romance Literature

Main publications:

Nohe, Hanna (2024): Migrierende Subjekte in romanischen Literaturen der Welt. Sozioökonomische Mittlerfiguren zwischen Süd und Nord in aktueller Narrativik, Berlin: De Gruyter.

Nohe, Hanna (2018): Fingierte Orientalen erschaffen Europa. Zur Konstruktion kultureller Identitäten im Reisebriefroman der Aufklärung, Paderborn: Fink.

Nohe, Hanna (2024): “O duplo lugar de fala entre palavras próprias e estruturação pela hegemonia: Quarto de Despejo (1960) e Boca de Lixo (1993),” Iberoromania, 99, 87–99.

Nohe, Hanna (2023): “Una nodriza esclava reescribe la historia. Un análisis epistemológico de Changó, el gran putas (1983) de Manuel Zapata Olivella”, Romance Notes, 63, 1, 145–157.

Nohe, Hanna (2021): “La dimensión psicológica de la casa en la literatura fantástica de los siglos XIX y XX. Un análisis comparado de Le Horla, Casa tomada, y La casa de Asterión”, Revista Iberoamericana, 87, 274, 341–353.

Mirian Alves Souza holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a researcher at the Middle East Studies Centre (NEOM/UFF). Her recent research explores the experiences and legacies of slavery and colonialism in the lives of displaced people in Brazil, integrating both academic and artistic methodologies, including the Theatre of the Oppressed.

Project: Conviviality and the Afterlife of Slavery: Experiences of Racialized Subjects on the Move in Brazil

Abstract:

This project underscores the persistence of a past that is not past, reflecting how legacies of slavery and colonialism shape the lives of people on the move and the status of racialised subjects. The theoretical framework focuses on the “afterlife of slavery” and adopts conviviality as an analytical lens, which will be used to examine the artistic production Teatro Marronage. The primary objective is to analyse Teatro Marronage alongside the ethnographic material developed around it, including field notes and an extensive collection of photographic and audiovisual documentation. Engaging with artistic production enables a move beyond traditional critique, challenging established epistemic frameworks and exploring contemporary “poetics”, understood as an “aesthetic-artistic practice that seeks to disrupt modern political mechanisms of racial subjectivation” (Ferreira da Silva, 2018).

Main discipline: Anthropology

Main publications: 

Souza, Mirian Alves de (2024): “A Modest Hijab: A Humanitarian Encounter in Brazil through the Lens of a Single-Story”, Kulturella Perspektiv, 33, 1–9.

Souza, Mirian Alves de (2022): “Outro humanitarismo do Abraço Cultural: Curso de línguas com abordagem antirracista,” Ayé: Revista de antropologia, 4, 1, 65– 84.

Souza, Mirian Alves de (2021): “Refúgio e família entre mulheres do conflito sírio no Brasil e Tunísia”, Antropolitica, 2, 52, 245–270.

Souza, Mirian Alves de (2020): “Notas etnográficas sobre o desacordo nas comunidades ciganas imaginadas”, Novos Olhares Sociais, 3, 2, 159–180.

Souza, Mirian Alves de (2020): “Decote e hijab nas notas da etnografia com mulheres do conflito sírio no Brasil”, VIVENCIA: Revista de antropologia, 1, 56, 62–85.

Stephanie Dennison is Professor of Brazilian Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. Originally from Northern Ireland (and dual national UK/Ireland), she completed her PhD in Brazilian Cultural History at the University of Liverpool in 1996, under the supervision of John Gledson. She was a Leverhulme International Academic Fellow at the Deptartment of Multimeios at Universidade Estadual de Campinas in 2015. At Leeds, she is a founding member of the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures and she also co-founded the European network of researchers working in Brazilian Cultural Studies (REBRAC). She has published widely on film. Her latest monograph, the prize-winning Remapping Brazilian Film Culture in the 21st Century, was published by Routledge in 2020. She returned to the classroom in 2022 as a (very mature!) student and completed a part-time MA (with Distinction) in Filmmaking at the University of Bradford in 2024.

Project: Decolonising Lusofonia: Brazil, Cinema, and the Black Atlantic

Abstract:

The communities that make up the Portuguese-speaking world, or lusofonia, account for 280 million people across four continents. In 1996 these communities formed an official organisation, the CPLP (Community of Portuguese-language Countries) with its headquarters in Lisbon. The extent to which the term CPLP is interchangeable with the Eurocentric expression lusofonia, even within the organisation itself, points to the controversial importance still placed on the Portuguese language (and by extension Portugal) as the binding force within the geo-political unit. The result is a centring of Portugal in relation to the production and promotion of transnational cultural relations within lusofonia. Moreover, there is a relative absence of questioning the implicit centring of whiteness in Lusophone cultural production, despite the impact of the decolonial turn on Lusophone Studies, and lusofonia consisting of majority non-white populations. Despite Brazil’s role in setting up the CPLP along with Portugal, the Brazilian news media and public rarely consider lusofonia as a relevant cultural space. This project looks beyond institutional discourses, to Afro-Brazilian film culture that is uniquely positioned to challenge the “structuring absence” of Black voices and images in lusofonia. Observing that their transnational outlook is increasingly drawn to the PALOPs, this project seeks to intervene in debates about the relevance of lusofonia for Brazilian culture.

Main discipline: Brazilian Cultural Studies

Main publications:

Laura Loguercio Canepa; Dennison, Stephanie (2025): Brazilian Horror Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Neo-Fascism, Disaffection, Resistance, London, Tamesis Press.

Dennison, Stephanie (2023): Practising Inclusive Citation in Modern Languages Research: The View from Brazilian Film Studies, Liverpool: Modern Languages Open.

Dennison, Stephanie; Dwyer, Rachel (2021): Cinema and Soft Power: Configuring the National and Transnational in Geo-Politics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Dennison, Stephanie (2020): “Cultura cinematográfica e identidades queer no Brasil contemporâneo”, Cadernos Pagu, 60, e206005.

Dennison, Stephanie (2020): Remapping Brazilian Film Culture in the Twenty-First Century, London: Routledge.

Wolfram Nitsch, born in 1960, received his doctorate and venia legendi from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Since 2000, he has been professor of French literature and Hispanic literatures at the UzK. His main areas of research are twentieth-century French prose, Spanish Golden Age literature, and modern Argentine narrative, as well as media studies, literary anthropology and spatial theory. From 2014 to 2018 he directed a research project on wastelands in modern film and literature. He is currently working on vehicular fictions in France and Latin America.

Project: Contact Zones in Vehicular Fiction. Coexistence and Inequality in Modern and Contemporary Argentinean Literature

Abstract:

The interdependence between conviviality and inequality that marks life in Latin American cities manifests very concretely in urban transit. Metropolitan mobility infrastructures are presented as zones of contact between disparate actors. On the one hand, the means of transport themselves constitute rolling meeting places; on the other hand, the roads give rise to a continuous interaction between vehicles and pedestrians with different forces and speeds. Such road contact zones often appear in vehicular fictions, namely in literary texts that assign a crucial role to the vehicles and roads used by the characters. My project will study the representation of such zones in modern and contemporary Argentine literature. Starting from the narrative urbanistics of Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, it will analyse the “zone” imagined by Juan José Saer as a space marked by distinct mobilities and examine how vehicles and roads are charged with political meanings in current narratives (Elvio Gandolfo, Eugenia Almeida).

Main discipline: Literature

Main publications: 

Nitsch, Wolfram (2024): Mécaniques évocatrices. Claude Simon et la technique, Villeneuve dʼAscq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion.

Nitsch, Wolfram (2023): “Ficciones vehiculares”, in: Zunino Singh, Dhan; Jirón, Paola; Giucci, Guillermo (eds.), Nuevos términos clave para los estudios de movilidad en América Latina, Buenos Aires: Teseo, 113–123.

Nitsch, Wolfram (2021): “Una provincia vehicular. Transportes y transgresiones en la trilogía pampeana de Hernán Ronsino”, in: Aguilar, Gonzalo; Nitsch, Wolfram; Türschmann, Jörg; Wehr, Christian (eds.), Culturas del transporte en América Latina. Redes, prácticas, discursos, ficciones, deSignis, 34, 121–133.

Nitsch, Wolfram (2018): El teatro barroco como campo de juego. Estudios sobre Lope de Vega y Tirso de Molina, Kassel: Reichenberger.

Nitsch, Wolfram (2013): “Terrain vague. Zur Poetik des städtischen Zwischenraums in der französischen Moderne”, Comparatio, 5, 1–18.