Food Circulation in Networks of Care, Aid, and Reciprocity: Theoretical-Analytical Dialogues

• Grant number: 24/16990-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: March 20, 2025
• End date: October 29, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Gracia Piscitelli
• Grantee: Isabelle Caroline Damião Chagas
• Supervisor: Heike Drotbohm
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/05055-0 - Yesterday we ate badly. And today even worse: food, conflict and reciprocity in times of scarcity in the Vila Nova occupation, Belo Horizonte (MG), BP.DR

Abstract

Building on my ongoing FAPESP-funded doctoral research-an ethnographic study examining exchange networks and reciprocity among residents of a Brazilian urban periphery-this proposal for a Research Internship Abroad aims to deepen the analysis of theoretical-analytical categories linked to care relationships. The goal is to explore the uses, boundaries, and classifications of care and aid notions in and through my empirical investigation. During this internship abroad, I will focus on a literature review of research conducted in various comparable settings, particularly those conducted with feminist and post/decolonial perspectives. Furthermore I will also expand the dialogue I have already established with researchers primarily from Latin America and Southern Europe. To this end, I plan to spend a semester at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, under the supervision of Heike Drotbohm, Professor of Anthropology and principal investigator of the project "Sorting with Care: Human Categorization in Post-Humanitarian Contact Zones" which is part of the International Research Centre "Studies in Human Differentiation". During my stay, I will have the opportunity to work with her team and deepen the dialogues we have maintained since 2022. In addition to the literature review, the methodology includes participation in internal colloquia at Professor Heike Drotbohm's research group which is part of the Institute of Anthropology and African Studies and, as well as presenting papers at international events and publishing a final paper.