BIPOC Speaker Series 3: Environmental Knowledge and Anthropological Perspectives from the Global South

This event explores how mixed media and artistic practices can be used as methodological tools in academic research, as well as how to critically work with political subjects, Indigenous knowledge, and environmental practices from a Global South perspective. The session invites participants to reflect on how research can engage with lived experiences and collaborative ways of knowing.

The first part of the event will feature a talk by Guilherme Moura Fagundes, an anthropologist, filmmaker, and postdoctoral research fellow (PNPD/CAPES) at the University of Brasília (UnB), affiliated with the Laboratory of Anthropology of Science and Technique (LACT). Drawing on his research on fire management in the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado), Fagundes develops an anthropology of fire, reflecting on the use of ethnographic filmmaking, collaborative methods, and artistic practice to study environmental governance, cross-cultural knowledge production, and the politics of conservation. His work engages closely with quilombola communities, environmental managers, fire brigades, and scientists, foregrounding Indigenous and traditional techniques often marginalised in dominant policy frameworks.

In the second part of the session, the event opens up into a discussion with PhD students to reflect on their own research practices, particularly around working with politically sensitive topics, community-based knowledge, marginalised literature, and creative or mixed methodologies. The discussion aims to foster critical dialogue about decolonising research practices, navigating institutional constraints, and imagining alternative ways of producing and sharing knowledge within and beyond academia.

To register for this session, please contact Carmem Saito.