On August 19 and 20, 2026, LISA-USP will host the Social Anthropology Postdoctoral Seminar: Music, Cinema, and Anthropology. Organized by the research groups GRAVI and PAM, the event aims to showcase ongoing research by postdoctoral fellows in Social Anthropology at FFLCH/USP focusing on "Music, Cinema, and Anthropology," as well as to foster dialogue and academic debate around these themes. The event is free and open to the public.
Program:
August 19, 2026 (Wednesday)
Moderator: Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Music, Ethnography, and Anthropology (Jorge Lampa, Rafael B. A. Norberto, Mateus de Oliveira, and Gabriel Improta França)
6:00 PM: Music circle
August 20, 2026 (Thursday)
Moderator: Vitória Grunvald
3:30 PM – 7:00 PM: Audiovisual Media and Anthropology (Isabel Wittmann, Leandro Oliveira, and Diego Pinheiro)
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Generative AI and academic work (Isabel Wittmann, Rafael B. A. Norberto, Mateus de Oliveira, and Leandro Oliveira)
PARTICIPANTS:
Diego Alano Pinheiro is an anthropologist, researcher, documentary filmmaker, and cultural producer originally from Santarém (Pará). Holding a PhD and a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology, he pursues an interdisciplinary path spanning anthropology, cinema, dramaturgy, and Amazonian popular culture. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo (USP) and NOVA University Lisbon (NOVA), funded by FAPESP (Grant No. 2023/06358-6). His research focuses on "Amazonian Cinema"—film production from and within the Amazon—emphasizing the relationships between visual anthropology, cinema, identity, and territory. He was a visiting researcher at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in 2020 and taught within the PARFOR/CAPES/UFOPA program. His doctoral thesis—awarded a prize by the Brazilian Anthropology Association (ABA) in 2020 in the Anthropology and Human Rights category—investigated the therapeutic pathways and the social and political mobilization of scalping victims in the Amazon; the work also resulted in a technical report for the Ministry of Health. In the audiovisual field, he has directed and produced documentary, ethnographic, and fictional works, such as *Minha Vida por um Fio*, *Encante*, and *Erveiras: a cura vem das plantas* (winner at the 2023 Curta Xingu Festival). His interests lie in cinema, ethnographic film, the body, and the Amazon, particularly at their intersection with Social Anthropology.
Gabriel Improta França is a guitarist, composer, and arranger who has released several solo albums and worked with major Brazilian artists such as Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Paulo Moura, Francis Hime, and Jaques Morelenbaum. He holds a Master’s degree in Musical Composition from UNIRIO, studied guitar and improvisation at the GIT (Musicians Institute) in Los Angeles, USA, and earned a PhD in Social Sciences from PUC-RJ/EHESS (France) with research focused on the ethnography of samba-jazz musicians. Gabriel Improta is currently a professor of Popular Guitar at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) and is conducting a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of São Paulo (USP) in the field of audiovisual anthropology, focusing on guitar strumming patterns.
Isabel Wittmann is an anthropologist, researcher, and film critic. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo (USP), working on the project "Fury and Chrome: Cyborgization and Gender in the Post-Humanist Construction of George Miller's Furiosa," supported by a CAPES PIPD scholarship. She earned her doctorate from the same program in 2023 with a thesis titled "Machinic Femininities: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bodies of Artificial Women in Fantastic Cinema." In 2021, she undertook a doctoral research placement in the Anthropology and Languages of the Image program at the University of Siena (Università degli Studi di Siena) with a CAPES scholarship via the PRINT program (Institutional Program for Internationalization). She holds a degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC, 2008) and a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM, 2016). Her master's thesis, titled "Body, Gender, and Identity: Transgender Experiences in the City of Manaus," was developed within the research track of City, Heritage, and Urban Cultural Practices and funded by the Amazonas State Research Support Foundation (FAPEAM). In 2016, she founded the film criticism project *Feito por Elas* ("Made by Women"), which aims to analyze, discuss, and promote films created by women. She is a member of the Brazilian Association of Film Critics (Abraccine) and the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci), and serves as an international voter for the Golden Globe Awards. Her work is interdisciplinary, spanning the anthropology of cinema, gender, and sexuality. Jorge Luiz Ribeiro de Vasconcelos (Jorge Lampa) is a professor at the Center for Culture, Languages, and Applied Technologies at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (CECULT/UFRB). He holds a bachelor's degree in Popular Music (1993), a master's degree in Arts (2002), and a doctorate in Music (2010) from UNICAMP. From 2020 to 2021 and during the current period (until February 202...