What does your research focus on?
My research focuses on the Xingu River basin of the Brazilian Amazonia, where riverside and Indigenous communities are currently fighting for their land and livelihoods against loggers, land-grabbers and a hydroelectric dam project. I am particularly interested in how these communities relate to their natural environment and to broader Brazilian society, finding strategies to keep traditional practices while adapting to a rapidly transforming reality.
How (or why) did you become interested in that line of research?
My maternal grandfather was born and raised in an Amazonian riverside community, and I have been working with such communities since I was an undergraduate student at the University of São Paulo. Amazonia is a beautiful and fascinating place, the most biodiverse and culturally rich in the world, and it is being rapidly destroyed by people who want to transform it into soy fields and cattle ranches. We have to find ways to better support the people of the forest who have lived there for centuries, not only protecting the forest but making it more diverse by cultivating it.
What’s the most interesting (or underappreciated) aspect of your research that most people won’t know about?
There are no restaurants or transportation services in the communities where I work. The only way to get there is to hitch rides with local river traders and, while you are out there on the river, you depend on receiving food and shelter from the riverside people who live on the riverbanks. They are incredibly poor, but amazingly generous and won't accept money. In fact, they will be offended if you offer money in return for something that they see as basic human decency. I will always be indebted to them, and often think about the lessons they taught me about being kind to strangers.
Why did you choose UTSC?
The community is amazing and very supportive of young scholars. Coming from Brazil, I feel at home in such a diverse place. And the campus reminds me of the public schools that trained me in anthropology back home.
What are you reading/watching right now?
I am teaching a class on anthropology and science fiction (which will be offered next winter semester as well!) so all of my leisure reading/viewing has been dedicated to that.
I just started Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and am loving it! I also recently finished watching The Expanse on Amazon Video and thought they did a great job adapting the book series.