Ethnology of Gender and Sexuality

• Grant number: 24/18800-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2026
• End date: December 31, 2030
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Francisco Paolo Vieira Miguel
• Grantee: Francisco Paolo Vieira Miguel
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Campinas
• Associated researchers: B Camminga ; Isadora Lins França ; Marc Epprecht ; Maria Judite Mario Chipenembe

Abstract

This project proposes the creation of a new research line within the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS) at Unicamp, titled "Ethnology of Gender and Sexuality." The initiative seeks to shift the traditional focus of ethnology-often anchored in specific subjects or contexts, as in the expressions "Indigenous," "African," or "Melanesian" ethnology-toward a transversal theme: gender and sexuality. The proposal is based on the premise that the ethnization and internationalization-both theoretical and empirical-of gender and sexuality studies can yield innovative and bold contributions. From a scientific standpoint, the goal is to foster Brazilian anthropological production that engages in more comparative dialogues with gender and sexuality regimes situated beyond the symbolic boundaries of the Western Hemisphere-and particularly beyond urban Brazil. The proposal will be developed through two interconnected axes. The first consists of the individual ethnographic research of the lead investigator on the international mobilities of LGBT Mozambican individuals, in collaboration with research groups at Unicamp, Queen's University, the University of Bristol, and Eduardo Mondlane University. The focus is on the experiences of LGBT Mozambican migrants and refugees in transit through countries such as South Africa, aiming to understand how these circulations reconfigure the subjective and political perceptions of these individuals-through an ethnological and comparative lens that includes other African and global contexts. The second axis stems from the diagnosis that, although Brazilian anthropological research in the field of gender and sexuality has expanded its empirical contexts to rural areas of the country, it still maintains limited engagement with contemporary ethnographies produced in non-Western settings. Therefore, the project intends not only to bring students and researchers closer to international scholarship in this subfield, but also to promote its internationalization by funding undergraduate and graduate research projects in the state of São Paulo. (AU)