Thematic Fellowships

Antonella Delmonte Allasia is a professor and doctor in anthropology from UBA and a postdoctoral fellow at CONICET in the Institute for Gender Studies Research (IIEGE). She is part of the CLACSO Working Group on South-South Migrations and Borders and the Argentine Association for Research in Women’s History and Gender Studies (AAIHMEG). She has been part of various national and international research groups and projects based at CONICET, CONACYT, and UFPI. She is also a tutor at the National Institute of Teacher Training. Her research topic analyses worker’s experience in the garment industry.

Rethinking the Informality of Bolivian Migrant Workers in the World of Clothing Manufacture: Ethnographic Dialogues between São Paulo and Buenos Aires

The objective of this project is to rethink the concept of informality based on the experiences and work trajectories of Bolivian migrants in the field of clothing manufacturing in São Paulo and Buenos Aires. I propose an in-depth analysis of their daily interactions and experiences in informality to understand the multidimensional impact on regimes of conviviality-inequality. I will start with an ethnographic study in the labour universe of clothing and, through a comparative analysis, I will try to deepen the articulation between informalities and conviviality. I thus seek to contribute to the deepening, disaggregation, and specification of informalities as a focus topic for Mecila in 2024. The project contemplates contributions along two main lines. Firstly, it aims to broaden regional ethnographic studies with a comparative perspective. Secondly, it strives to enrich theoretical discussions on informality and its connections with conviviality in the contemporary regional context.

Cristina Teixeira Marins is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Social and Political Studies of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and a Hunt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She served as a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, received PhD and master’s degree in anthropology from the Universidade Federal Fluminense and a master’s degree in sociology of contemporary societies from the School of Humanities and Social Science Sorbonne at the Paris Descartes University. Her research focuses on transformations in the Brazilian wage-free labour market in the platform economy.

From Informality to Platform Economy: Transformation of Work in Brazil and its Political Implications in the 21st century

This research project investigates peripheral populations working in the wage-free labour market, including forms of self-employment, informal, and autonomous work. The research focuses on social transformations underway in recent years as a result of the spread of digital platforms – both those involving triangular contract relationships between workers, platforms and customers, and social networking platforms. Although specific research initiatives have made relevant contributions to update the notion of the working class in Brazil, the subject of changes that digital technologies cause at work and their relationship with the political subjectivity of workers in the Brazilian peripheries remains little explored. This project collaborates to fill this gap, advancing from specific and still scarce initiatives. More specifically, the research explores how workers in the informal labour market perceive the evolution of working and living conditions, how they forge their political views, how the internet and social networks collaborate to shape political subjectivities, what are worker’s expectations towards the future and what kinds of collective organization emerge in this context. This proposal is based on research material gathered in the last two years, including ethnographic fieldwork, focus groups with 72 people working in several sectors of the wage-free labour market, 36 in-depth interviews, and systematic monitoring of social networks.

Dr Boix holds a doctorate in social sciences from UNLP and serves as an adjunct researcher at CONICET. Currently, she also holds the position of academic secretary in the sociology department at the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences of UNLP. She teaches methodology of social research at the same institution and conducts courses on ethnographic methodologies and sociology of culture in multiple Argentine universities. Her research primarily focuses on cultural sociology, exploring the intersections between aesthetics, work, and cultural policies within contemporary musical scenes.

The Plot of “Independent” Music in a Process of Historical Change: Conviviality and Informality in Music Conventions in Buenos Aires and São Paulo

This project focuses on the informal frameworks of “independent” music in Buenos Aires and São Paulo over the last twenty years of historical transformation. Until the 1990s, “independent” music referred to small groups resistant to the concentrated market and governmental institutions. Nowadays, “independence” is associated with broader and more heterogeneous social segments, musically hybrid, and linked to state cultural politics and companies. In this context, “independent” music can be read as a configuration of conviviality characterized by economic, technological, power, and gender asymmetries. Paying attention to the interactions between musicians, state officials, and actors in the cultural industries and markets, as well as the symbolic constructions of these groups, this project aims to understand how technologies, public policies, markets, and genres are assembled in contemporary “independent” music. Using a qualitative methodology, we focus empirically on music conventions in Buenos Aires and São Paulo, central metropolitan areas for Latin American musical production. These fairs mix live music, conferences, workshops, and buyer/seller rounds (both private and state), where relationships are cemented, jobs are secured, and artistic work is promoted.

Berit Callsen holds a PhD in Romance Language Philology. She has been working as an Assistant Professor of Romance Language Cultural Studies at Universität Osnabrück, Germany since 2017. Her main research interests are constructions of corporality in contemporary Latin American literature and culture; subject cultures in Spanish modernity (19^th/20^th century); representations of nature in recent Latin American documentary films; and visuality and poetics of sight in Spanish, Latin American and French literature and film (20^th/21^st century).

Abstract:
During the last decade, representations of nature/environment have gained increasing visibility in Chilean documentary filmmaking. My research focusses on a corpus of four recent documentary (short) films by Patricio Guzmán, Galut Alarcón, Álvaro Hamamé and Rosario López/Sebastián Pinto (2015-2021) that pay special attention to multiple relations of conviviality between humans and non-humans, and make the tensions and conflicts visible that arise in contexts of exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Within the underlying structures of inequality, the films foreground indigenous perspectives on nature, especially on water. In terms of representations of the convivial relation between nature and humans, the mapuche cosmovision focuses on the situatedness of hydro-knowledge in indigenous thinking and being. Hence, the films operate with concepts of indigenous/relational ontology as well as with the notion of relational indigenous environmental justice, and offer perspectives on a differently perceivable world. In this vein, the research project aims to investigate the hydro-aesthetics staged by the films in terms of other epistemologies, ethical positions and representations. To which extent do these aesthetics reflect a dynamic between marginalization and inclusion of knowledges, voices, and imaginaries? And which are the effects of recent hybrid forms of documentary filmmaking that attempt to invert asymmetric structures in medialized convivial relations?

Flavia Meireles is an artist and a Professor in the ethnic-racial relations graduate program of the Federal Centre for Technological Education in Rio de Janeiro (Cefet/RJ). She holds a doctorate in communication and culture and a master’s degree (mestrado) in visual arts from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She was a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender at the University of Brighton in 2022. She was also a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies (ATW) of the Justus Liebig University Giessen in 2018/2019. In 2021, the Associação Brasileira de Estudos da TransHomocultura (ABETH) awarded her an honourable mention for her doctoral dissertation Movimentos sociais e contextos artísticos: lutas pelos corpos e pela terra no capitalismo neoliberal. Her research interests include indigenous movements in Pindorama and Abya Yala; politics of race, gender, and sexuality in the arts; and counter-colonial feminisms.

Abstract:
Is there a form of ‘artistic demarcation’ in the performance art of the indigenous peoples of Brazil/Pindorama? Demarcation (demarcação), in this context, refers to the Brazilian state’s formal historical reparations, beginning with the return of lands that were expropriated from indigenous ethnic groups over a period of five centuries through various (il)legal means. It was only in 1988 that demarcation became a constitutional instrument, albeit rarely enforced, as a result of a long struggle by indigenous movements. Today, we are witnessing the emergence of indigenous artists bringing their cosmologies to the institutionalised field of performance art. This research project aims to observe said emergence and investigate the possibility of an ‘artistic demarcation’ in the performance pieces of Lian Gaia and Barbara Matias. These three indigenous artists approach land disputes on several levels. It is important to note, however, that indigenous peoples have a much broader understanding of terra (earth, land), such as Mãe Terra, Pachamama, in comparison to the Western notion of land as a ‘natural resource’ or as property used for predatory extractivism. As territory, land (Pachamama) is contiguous to indigenous bodies. On the basis of the artistic works of these three artists, I explore whether an ‘artistic demarcation’ can be identified in Brazil/Pindorama, while also considering its limitations and transgressions.

Mariana Simoni is an Assistant Professor of Latin American Literatures and Cultures, with an emphasis on Brazilian Studies, at the Institute for Latin American Studies, FU Berlin. She holds a PhD in Literary Studies from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and was the recipient of a doctoral research fellowship of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is Subproject Head of “Postautonome künstlerische Interventionen in Brasilien und Argentinien” (SFB 1512 “Intervenierende Künste”) together with Prof. Susanne Zepp. Her current research focuses on the ontological turn in literary studies, ecocriticism in Latin America and Brazil, and new materialisms in literary and cultural studies.

Abstract:

Metamorphosis has been studied mainly as a specific corpus of literature, even when linked to a decolonial theoretical frame and to the discourse of species in the context of Latin American literature. Focusing on becoming-animal and placing the concept of metamorphosis at the center of aesthetic experience, the project aims to investigate the relationship between literature and shamanism. It takes as its starting point both the fundamental role of visual perception in subjective cognitive processes, as well as the definition of the shamanic practice on the basis of three actions: seeing, moving and telling in the role of the shaman as a mediator between worlds. The hypothesis to be investigated here is that inserting the process of becoming-animal in the communicative frame of shamanic experience allows for an embodied conception of vision, and therefore, for the emergence of new performative (aesthetic) strategies. Taking as a background the intersection between indigenous conceptions of shamanism and canonical texts of Latin American literature in which metamorphosis plays a central role, the project focuses on two specific works: La frontera/Borderlands (Gloria Anzaldúa 1987) and La mucama de Omicunlé (Rita Indiana 2015).

Jacqueline Teixeira has a doctoral title in Social Anthropology from the USP, where she also obtained a Master’s degree and a further degree in Sociology, in addition to a degree in Theology from the Mackenzie Presbyterian Institute. As a researcher at CEBRAP, she investigates the areas of gender, sexuality, and religion. She is also a researcher at NUMAS, USP’s centre for social markers of difference. Her main activities and research interests are in the areas of urban anthropology, anthropology of religion, and social markers of difference. She is currently a substitute professor in the Department of Philosophy of Education and Educational Sciences of the Faculty of Education at USP, an accredited professor in the university’s Postgraduate Program in Education (PPGE-USP) and a postdoctoral researcher in its Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS-USP).

Main Discipline: Anthropology

Selected publications:

Teixeira, Jacqueline M. (2014): “Mídia e performances de gênero na Igreja Universal: O desafio Godllywood. Religião & Sociedade”, 34, 232–256.

Teixeira, Jacqueline M. (2017): “As relações entre Estado e Religião no Brasil”, in: Silva, Felipe G. and José R. Rodriguez (eds.), Manual de Sociologia Jurídica [3 vols.] [4th edition], São Paulo: Ed. Saraiva, 301–335.

Teixeira, Jacqueline M. (2021a): A Mulher Universal: corpo, gênero e pedagogia da prosperidade [2nd edition], São Paulo: Portal de livros abertos da USP.

Teixeira, Jacqueline M. (2021b): “Disputes pour les droits de l’homme au Brésil:une grammaire évangéliste dans les politiques publiques d’éducation”, in: Basdevant-Gaudemet, Brigitte and David Koussens (eds.), Les protestants évangéliques et la laïcité, Paris: Ed. Université Paris Saclay, 58–78.

Teixeira, Jacqueline M. (2021c): “No es humo, es fuego! Cruzada anti-género y resistencias feministas en Brasil”, in: Vega, Cristina and Cabezas, Marta (eds.), En la/La trinchera patriarcal: Neoliberalismo autoritario y nuevas derechas en Europa y las Américas, Barcelona: Ed. Bellaterra, 201–231.

Marília Moschkovich is a sociologist. She obtained her MA and PhD titles in the field of Education and Social Sciences from University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Her areas of interest are sociology of education, sociology of knowledge, gender studies, feminist theories, and anthropology. She received the German Chancellor Fellowship for Tomorrow’s Leaders from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and she has held academic posts at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina (UNC) as well as the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris.

Main Discipline: Sociology

Selected publications:

Moschkovich, Marília and Almeida, Ana Maria F. (2015): “Desigualdades de Gênero na Carreira Acadêmica no Brasil“, in: Dados, 58, 3, 749–789.

Moschkovich, Marília (2017): “Beyond the Academic Glass Ceiling: Notes on the Situation of Women Professors in Brazil”, in: Eggins, Heather (ed.), The Changing Role of Women in Higher Education. Academic and Leadership Issues [The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective 17], Cham: Springer International Publishing; Imprint: Springer, 291–310.

Moschkovich, Marília (2018): Feminist Gender Wars: The Reception of the Concept of Gender in Brazil (1980s-1990s) and the Global Dynamics of Production and Circulation of Knowledge [PhD Thesis], Campinas: Universidade Estadual de Campinas.

Moschkovich, Marília (2020a): “Notas para um Materialismo Bi-Alético“, in: Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Homocultura, 3, 10, 109–127.

Moschkovich, Marília (2020b): “Sobre laranjas mecânicas, feminismo e psicanálise: natureza e cultura na dialética da alienação voluntária”, in: Teperman, Daniela; Thais Garrafa and Vera Iaconelli (eds.), Coleção Psicanálise e Parentalidade [1 vol.], Belo Horizonte: Autêntica.

Cinthia Wanschelbaum holds a PhD title in Education Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). She is a researcher at CONICET based at the UBA’s IICE (Institute for Research in Education Sciences), and Associate Professor in the Department of Education of the National University of Luján (UNLu). She also teaches postgraduate courses in different national universities throughout Argentina. She has received scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to carry out research at the HU Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin).

Main Discipline: Education Sciences

Selected publications:

Wanschelbaum, Cinthia (2015): “Educación y terrorismo de Estado en la Argentina. La política educativa de los dinosaurios“, in: Pedagógica, Nº3. Departamento de Pedagogía, Política y Sociedad, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, 3, 57–72.

Wanschelbaum, Cinthia (2018): “La política educativa del aristogato“, in: Márgenes. Revista de Economía Política, 4, 37–45.

Wanschelbaum, Cinthia (2019): “Educación y desigualdad. Un análisis histórico-crítico de la Educación de Jóvenes y Adultos en Argentina“, in: Polifonías. Revista de Educación, VII, 23–42.

Wanschelbaum, Cinthia (2020): “El movimiento reformista del 55 al 66. La lucha “laica o libre” y el Departamento de Extensión Universitaria”, in: Feldfeber, Myriam and María Inés Maañon (eds.), La Educación Superior como derecho: a 100 años de la Reforma Universitaria, Buenos Aires: Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, 15–18.

Wanschelbaum, Cinthia (2021): “Una universidad para el pueblo. El proyecto político-pedagógico y las acciones del Departamento de Extensión Universitaria de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (1956-1966)”, in: Carli, Sandra (ed.), Historia de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (1945-1983), Buenos Aires: EUDEBA (forthcoming).

Cristina Alarcón is a university assistant and lecturer at the University of Vienna. From 2011 to December 2020, she was research assistant and lecturer at the HU Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin). She holds a doctorate in Educational Sciences from the HU Berlin, a degree she pursued with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She is a psychologist, a former CONICET scholarship-recipient, and holds a Magister title (Maestría en Ciencias Sociales) from FLACSO (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences).

Main Discipline: Education Sciences

Selected publications:

Alarcón, Cristina (2014a): La verdad y la belleza. Protestas de escolares en Chile, 1973-2013 [Documentary], Chile: Martec Producciones.

Alarcón, Cristina (2014b): Modelltransfer im Schatten des Krieges, Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang Publishing Group.

Alarcón, Cristina (2015): “Governing by Testing: Circulation, Psychometric Knowledge, Experts and the “Alliance for Progress” in Latin America During the 1960s and 1970s“, in: European Education, 47, 3, 199–214.

Alarcón, Cristina (2017): “Die StellvertreterInnen – Bildung und SchülerInnenmobilisierung in Chile, 1990-2015“, in: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 63, 5, 596–613.

Katharina Schembs holds a PhD in History from the HU Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin) and an MA in History, Art History, and Romance Language Studies from the University of Heidelberg. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Iberian and Latin American History at UzK.

Her main research interests lie in visual history, the history of populism and authoritarianism, as well as the history of urban planning in the global South.

Main Discipline: History

Selected publications:

Schembs, Katharina (2013): “Education through images: Peronist visual propaganda between innovation and tradition (Argentina 1946-1955)”, in: Paedagogica Historica. International Journal of the History of Education, 49, 90–110.

Schembs, Katharina (2018): Der Arbeiter als Zukunftsträger der Nation. Bildpropaganda im faschistischen Italien und im peronistischen Argentinien in transnationaler Perspektive (1922- 1955) [Lateinamerikanische Forschungen Band 48], Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.

Schembs, Katharina and Potthast, Bárbara (eds.) (2019): Student Protests in the Global South. Annotated Sources (1918-2018), Cologne: GSSC.

Schembs, Katharina (2020): “Ein Mussolini der Pampa? Perón und die Rechte in Argentinien”, in: Eser, Patrick and Jan-Henrik Witthaus (eds.), Rechtswende in Lateinamerika. PolitischePendelbewegungen, sozio-ökonomische Umbrüche und kulturelle Imaginarien in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Wien: Mandelbaum Verlag.

Schembs, Katharina (2021): “The invention of the ‘third-world city’: urban planning in Latin America in the 1960s and early 1970s“, in: Esboços. Histórias em contextos globais, 28, 77–92.