Comments: Teresa Cunha (CES)
 

Summary

Thinking of the Brazilian sertões as a plural, diverse and powerful space, albeit historically associated with hunger, drought, dominant masculinities and submissive femininities, this seminar intends to analyse the different forms of female rebellion from the narratives of women living on the edge of urban and literate culture and especially those of Afro-indigenous descent, not schooled, belonging to the popular strata and living in rural areas and/or distant from the main centres. Their practices lead us to reflect on the possibility of feminist inventions, considering that they were historically constructed through the direct confrontation of women to the androcentric order, as well as by their subtle forms of rebellion. From a historical perspective, we intend to reflect on the various tactics used by rural women to subvert social gender constructions, giving rise to powerful and paradoxical “subjectivity inventions”.

Bio notes

Teresa Cunha holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Coimbra. She is a senior researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra where she lectures in several PhD Courses; co-coordinates the publication 'Oficina do CES', and the Gender Workshop Series and the Research Program 'Epistemologies of the South. She coordinates the Advanced School 'Feminist Ecologies of Knowledges'. She is an associated-professor at the College of Education of the Polytechnic College Coimbra and an associate researcher at CODESRIA and the Center for African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique. In 2017, the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste awarded her with the Order of Timor-Leste. Her research interests are feminisms and postcolonialisms; other feminist economies and women's economies; post war transition, peace and memories; women's human rights in the Indian Ocean space. She has published several scientific books and articles in several countries and languages of which stand out: Women InPower Women. Other economies created and led by women from the non-imperial south; Never Trust Sindarela. Feminisms, Postcolonialisms, Mozambique and Timor-Leste; Essays for Democracy. Justice, dignity and good-living; They in the South and North; Women's Voices of Timor; Timor-Leste: Chronicle of an Observation of Courage; Feto Timor Nain Hitu - Seven Women of Timor; Walking Through Other Paths and Roots of Participation.

Vânia Vasconcelos is a feminist historian and researcher of Gender Studies in Brazil, holds a PhD in History from the Federal Fluminense University (Rio de Janeiro) with a short stay exchange period at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain) and is a professor at the University of the State of Bahia, both in the Graduate Programme and in the Post-graduate Programme in Regional and Local History. Develops research on gender, sexualities, feminisms, women and biography, having recently published by EDUFBA the book “É um romance minha vida” – a trajetória de Dona Farailda - uma "casamenteira" no sertão baiano among other publications. She is currently conducting research at the postdoctoral level at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra/Portugal.

Tânia Vasconcelos is a professor at the State University of Bahia (UNEB) - Campus V, working in the areas of Modern Europe and Gender Studies (Theoretical and Methodological Foundations). She holds a PhD in History from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) with a short stay exchange period at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain), Master in Social History from the University of São Paulo (USP) and a BA in History from the University of the State of Bahia (UNEB). As a feminist historian, she develops teaching, research and outreach actions related to the following themes: Modern History and History of Brazil, gender relations, feminisms, women's history, gender and sexuality, gender and justice.