Happened at LISA

On September 18, 2015, at 8 p.m., SESC Pinheiros will screen the film Montando a Baiana as part of the Encontro de Baianas Ricas event.

The directors of the film, Aurélio Prates and Kelwin Marques, as well as a researcher from the Visual Anthropology Group (GRAVI-USP), will attend the film debate. The discussion will focus on the presence of Baianas Ricas in Maracatu Nation royal processions, particularly from the mid-20th century onward. During this period, individuals who challenged traditional gender norms, including transvestites and gay men, began to occupy central roles.

Supported by the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP), the film explores the…

Between September 11 and 12, 2025, the Cinemateca Brasileira will host the seminar “Crossed views between France and Brazil on the challenges of preserving and accessing audiovisual heritage: focusing on the audiovisual memory of Indigenous Peoples”, with the support of the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology at USP (LISA-USP).

The event is free and will feature simultaneous French-Portuguese translation, interpretation in Libras, and live streaming on the Cinemateca's  YouTube channel. 

Focusing on indigenous memory, the seminar aims to discuss the representation and preservation of indigenous culture in audiovisual media, promoting its visibility and…

The University of São Paulo (USP) will host the Franco-USP Week of Cooperation in Sciences, Arts and Humanities, from September 15 to 26, 2025. The event celebrates scientific collaborations between French universities and USP and, this year, gains special prominence by commemorating 200 years of bilateral relations between France and Brazil.

The program, which is the result of a partnership between different sectors of the University, the Consulate General of France in São Paulo, the Worlds in Transition Laboratory (IRL-CNRS-USP) and IdA-pôle Brésil, incorporates activities related to the Saison Croisée Brésil-France 2025, an agenda launched by Presidents Emmanuel Macron and…

We invite you to a meeting with Prof. Dr. Marco Antônio Gonçalves on September 02, 2025, at 3:00 p.m., in the auditorium of the Image and Sound Laboratory in Anthropology (LISA-USP).

The event "Glances, Imaginaries, and (m)Flames: Weaving Anthropologies in Times of Crisis" proposes a reflection on the contemporary challenges of anthropology and on how images, cinema, and other visual/expressive practices can inspire new languages, worlds, and methodologies in the face of current climatic, social, and political emergencies.

Marco Antônio Gonçalves is a Full Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Cultural Anthropology of the Institute of Philosophy and Social…

On September 15, 2025, at 4 p.m., the Métis Convida edition will feature Alex Flynn, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Flynn will present his research, "Paths to Utopia: Temporalities of Transformation in the Landless Movement."

Since its founding in 1984, the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) has become an international benchmark for agrarian reform struggles. For forty years, the MST has been a beacon of hope. While other progressive movements have dissipated, the MST persists with renewed vigor, providing secure land and housing to more than half a million people and settling 450,000 families. Nevertheless, MST members speak of agrarian…

How can we learn from animals to recover from catastrophic forest fires? In this presentation, Verónica Policarpo will address this question based on the ABIDE project, which examines post-fire recovery in three countries: Brazil, Portugal, and Australia. Policarpo will share aspects of her fieldwork in the Serra da Estrela region and discuss ways animals can inspire the creation of multispecies communities with greater ecological diversity, leading to more effective post-fire regeneration and resilience.

Policarpo is an anthropologist and a senior researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), as well as the coordinator of the Human-…

An ethnographic exploration of anthropological failure through the Mapuche archetypes of witch, clown, and usurper How do we learn what failure looks like? During the years anthropologist Magnus Course spent living with Indigenous Mapuche people in southern Chile, he came to understand failure—both his own and those of the discipline of anthropology—through Mapuche narratives of the witch, the clown, and the usurper. In a context of enduring poverty and racism, increasing state repression, and his own disintegration, he began to realize that these figures of failure, and their insatiable appetites for destruction, greed, and property, reflected as much upon his own failings as on anybody…

LISA-USP is pleased to invite you to the AntropoCena screening of Adó, Mestre dos Sons (Adó, Master of Sounds), directed by Jorge Lampa Vasconcelos. Vasconcelos will be present to discuss his work. Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji will moderate the discussion.

Vasconcelos is a musician, singer, cantador, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is also an adjunct professor of popular music at the Center for Culture, Languages, and Applied Technologies at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (CECULT-UFRB). He has a solid academic background: he received a bachelor's degree in Popular Music in 1993, a master's degree in Arts in…

On June 27, 2025, at 2 pm, LISA will host the lecture “Seeking ‘the best of both worlds’: how a black truffle hunting dog is made in Chile”,  promoted by the Anthropology and Biotechnodiversity Collective (CHAMA-USP), under the coordination of Guilherme Moura Fagundes.

In this presentation, Luísa Fanaro will discuss the practices of preparing human-canine pairs for hunting black truffles (Tuber melanosporum)  in Chile. Based on her ethnography, the author shows that this process depends on a dual dynamic of communication: between dogs and  truffles — an underground fungus — and between dogs and humans. If, on the one hand, it is…

The Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP) will host, on June 26, 2025, at 7 pm, the lecture "Microbes and Rituals in  Varanasi: an ethnography through the waters of the Ganges River". The event is an extension activity of the Anthropology and  Biotechnodiversity Collective (CHAMA-USP) and is part of the program of the discipline "Anthropology of Microorganisms", coordinated by  Guilherme Moura Fagundes.

Victor Secco will present central themes of his doctoral research, defended at the University of Manchester (England), which investigates the  intersections between science, religion and multispecies interactions, based on an ethnography conducted with Hindu…