Eating Disorders in Immigrant and Refugee Women in the City of São Paulo: Biopolitics and the Transcultural Constructions of Bodies and Minds in Migration

• Grant number: 24/21652-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Arthur Roberto Capella Giannattasio
• Grantee: Mariana Duarte Bruneli
• Host Institution: Instituto de Relações Internacionais (IRI). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Based on questionnaires and interviews with immigrant and refugee women, this study intends to understand whether the international migration to the city of São Paulo makes them feel driven to develop eating disorders as a result of the cultural change experienced. Considering that their experiences are crossed by the exercise of biopower, and that the cross-border displacement also implies the displacement between eating habits and between culturally consolidated conceptions of aesthetics, health and femininity, this research seeks to understand these issues in the light of international biopolitics, observing how it is exercised and how it impacts the bodies and minds of women inter and transnationally.