Meet The Team
Allen, Andrea, GSWS and Anthropology, FAH, FSS
My name is Andrea Allen, I'm an assistant professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and the Department of Anthropology. My research interests include a focus on Brazil, Portugal, Black Diaspora, LGBTQ studies, religion, race, sexuality, and violence. Currently, I am conducting an ethnographic research project about LGBTQ evangelicals and Pentecostals in São Paulo and Lisbon.
Find Andrea's faculty profile here.
Beckett, Greg, Associate Professor, Anthropology, FSS
Greg Beckett is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Western University and a member of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies research group. He has written extensively on Haitian politics, society, and history, with a focus on the lived experience of urban residents in Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince. His current research focuses on the intersection of energy infrastructure, post-disaster reconstruction, and the politics of disruption.
Find Greg's faculty profile here.
Block, Pamela, Professor, Anthropology, FSS
Pamela Block does research in disability and intersectionality in Brazil, currently focused on three projects: understanding the experiences black disabled women in higher education (with Marivete Gesser and Valeria Aydos), cocreative film making with members of Quilombo Filús who are albino and their families (with Ateliê Ambrosina), and Disability Portraits from Brazil (with Ateliê Ambrosina, Nadia Meinerz, and Marivete Gesser.)
Find Pamela Block's faculty profile here.
Clark, Kim, Professor, Anthropology, FSS
My research as a political anthropologist and historical anthropologist has examined the tensions and contradictions of nation and state formation in highland Ecuador in the first half of the twentieth century. My main publications on these topics are: The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1895-1930, Gender, State and Medicine in Highland Ecuador: Modernizing Women, Modernizing the State, 1895-1950, and most recently, Conjuring the State: Public Health Encounters in Highland Ecuador, 1908-1945.
Find Kim's faculty profile here.
Ferris, Neal, Professor, Anthropology, FSS
I’m working with the Nevisian heritage community and local residents on the colonial archaeology, heritage, and memory related to the traditions and waters of the Bath Spring, and the 18th - 20th-century era Bath House Hotel, on Nevis in St. Kitts & Nevis.
Find Neal's faculty profile here.
Gesser, Marivete, Adjunct Professor Western Anthropology, FSS, (Professor, UFSC Psychology)
Professor Gesser’s areas of teaching and research draw on feminist and decolonial theories in disability studies, queer/crip theory, and disability justice to study the structural ableism and their relations with neoliberal capitalist system, focusing on Brazil. Her current research aims to study the ableism present in the trajectories of black women with disabilities and their relationships with racism, sexism, and poverty, as well as the coalitions and alliances that emerge between those students who differ from the normative standard of universal human being. Her work has also focused on disseminating disability studies beyond academia, to disability activists and professionals working in Brazilian public policies. The work that has been carried out by Dr. Gesser has been widely awarded, with emphasis on the "Professional Experiences in the Construction of Educational Processes at School" (2009), "Democracy and Full Citizenship of Women" (2011), Cesar Ades Award (2013) from the Federal Council of Psychology (CFP) of Brazil and the Marcus Matraga Human Rights Award from the Latin American Union of Psychology Entities - ULAPSI.
Find Marivete's faculty profile here.
Granadillo, Tania, Associate Professor, Anthropology, FSS
I am a Linguistic Anthropologist and Linguist. As a native Venezuelan, I have done research on Venezuelan and Canadian Indigenous languages in the areas of documentation, description, revitalization, variation, language ideologies among others. I have supervised and served on committees with research in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela. My current projects are around Indigenous Languages in Venezuela and Canada, but I am also open to any research in the Americas.
Find Tania's faculty profile here.
Muriel, Mario, PH.D Student, Languages and Cultures, FAH
I am a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Studies at the Department of Languages and Cultures, Western University. My research interest focuses on reconciliation processes, reparation of victims and conflict resolution through symbolic acts such as murals of memory in Colombia, South of the country. I am working in the CulturePlex Lab and use a mixed research methodology based on digital humanities and Creative approaches to transformative justice processes.
Find Mario Muriel's profile here.
Nelson, Andrew, Professor, Anthropology, FSS
I am a bioarchaeologist, working on the Central Coast of Peru. I am using non-destructive imaging techniques to examine fardos - Pre-Hispanic funerary bundles containing the remains of an individual and grave goods all wrapped in lots of textiles. The fardo is a microcosm of the individual's biology (esp health and disease) and their cultural context.
Find Andrew Nelson's faculty profile here.
Pennesi, Karen, Associate Professor, Anthropology, FSS
I am a Linguistic Anthropologist and member of the Brazilian Studies research group. My current project investigates discourses surrounding the shift to non-agricultural employment among rural youth in Ceará, Northeast Brazil. I am exploring the tensions between maintaining ties to traditional culture and regional identity, and aspirations for economic and personal development.
Find Karen Pennesi's faculty profile here.
