Desiree Poets
Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Theory at the Department of Political Science and a Core Faculty of the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT) PhD Program.
Through ethnographically informed, creative, and collaborative methods, I have been working with urban Indigenous, favela, and maroon (in Portuguese, quilombola) communities and movements in Brazil’s Southeast Region since 2013. My research focuses on Settler Colonial, Postcolonial, and Dependency Theories in Latin America; urban (de-)militarization; arts, collective memory and community change, and questions of gender, ethnicity, class, and race.
My forthcoming book, "Unsettling Brazil", develops the notion of militarized dependent settler capitalism, the interdependent internal and external structures within, against, and beyond which urban Black and Indigenous struggles in Brazil take place. I ask: What does it mean to talk about decolonization (rather than Decoloniality) in a settler context shaped by dependent capitalism?
Staying with this question, my work has turned to community-produced arts and collective memory as practices that move beyond the limits of critique. I am a co-curator of the "Maré from the Inside | Maré de Dentro" bilingual (English and Portuguese) physical and virtual art exhibit, and co-principal investigator of a research lab on community art, memory, and development in Rio de Janeiro.
Through ethnographically informed, creative, and collaborative methods, I have been working with urban Indigenous, favela, and maroon (in Portuguese, quilombola) communities and movements in Brazil’s Southeast Region since 2013. My research focuses on Settler Colonial, Postcolonial, and Dependency Theories in Latin America; urban (de-)militarization; arts, collective memory and community change, and questions of gender, ethnicity, class, and race.
My forthcoming book, "Unsettling Brazil", develops the notion of militarized dependent settler capitalism, the interdependent internal and external structures within, against, and beyond which urban Black and Indigenous struggles in Brazil take place. I ask: What does it mean to talk about decolonization (rather than Decoloniality) in a settler context shaped by dependent capitalism?
Staying with this question, my work has turned to community-produced arts and collective memory as practices that move beyond the limits of critique. I am a co-curator of the "Maré from the Inside | Maré de Dentro" bilingual (English and Portuguese) physical and virtual art exhibit, and co-principal investigator of a research lab on community art, memory, and development in Rio de Janeiro.
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Books by Desiree Poets
https://hdl.handle.net/10919/117590
Unsettling Brazil is based on ethnographically-informed research with five urban Indigenous, favela, and quilombola (maroon) communities and movements (Aldeia Maracanã, Quilombo Sacopã, Quilombo dos Luízes, São Paulo's Indigenous movement, and Complexo da Maré) in three cities of Brazil’s industrialized Southeast Region (Rio, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte). The book investigates how these communities organize in related but distinct ways to secure their land rights and ways of life in the city. Drawing on the knowledge produced by Black and Indigenous organizers and thinkers, Poets argues for an interdisciplinary framework that prioritizes the voices and experiences of these communities. Theoretically, the book places Black and Indigenous thought, Settler Colonial Studies, and Brazilian Marxist Dependency Theory in dialogue to develop the notion “dependent settler capitalism”, and in so doing it pushes at the boundaries of each of these subfields. It also challenges the still common disciplinary and categorical separation of Black and Indigenous movements in scholarship and public policy, and the flawed urban-rural divides that inform it.
Journal Articles by Desiree Poets
Edited Volumes by Desiree Poets
O Complexo da Maré, localizado na Zona Norte do Rio de Janeiro e com cerca de 140 mil moradores, é o maior aglomerado de favelas do Brasil. Como este livro demonstra, as 16 comunidades que compõem a Maré são vibrantes e diversas, apesar de serem frequentemente representadas de maneira pejorativa.
Maré de Dentro: Arte, Cultura e Política no Rio de Janeiro acompanha a exibição de mesmo nome, criada por um time internacional de acadêmicos, organizadores comunitários e artistas brasileiros e estadunidenses. Por meio de retratos de família, fotografias de rua, documentários e textos, a exibição documenta as vidas dos moradores da Maré.
Este livro apresenta uma seleção das fotografias que fazem parte do acervo da exibição, tiradas pelo fotojornalista Antonello Veneri em colaboração com Henrique Gomes, produtor cultural, morador e organizador comunitário da Maré, entre 2013 e 2019, quando o Rio de Janeiro sediou a Copa do Mundo de 2014 e os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016. As fotografias, intimistas e profundamente humanas, evidenciam a diversidade e resiliência das comunidades da Maré e expõem os entraves que seus moradores confrontam no seu dia a dia, rompendo, deste modo, com as narrativas que os estigmatizam.
Os ensaios incluídos neste volume, escritos pelos criadores, curadores e colaboradores deste projeto, contextualizam as fotografias. O texto de Andreza Jorge, moradora e pesquisadora da Maré, por exemplo, levanta uma pergunta fundamental: o que faz da Maré de Dentro uma exibição tão comovente para tantas pessoas de diferentes partes do mundo? Parte da resposta reside no poder da arte de nos fazer reconsiderar imaginários e estruturas dominantes e, com isso, abraçar estratégias políticas e culturais que promovam a construção de uma sociedade verdadeiramente igualitária e democrática.
Maré from the Inside: Art, Culture and Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is a companion to the exhibition of the same name (Portuguese: Maré de Dentro), which was developed by an international team of Brazilian and US academics, activists and artists. The exhibition documents the lives of residents of Complexo da Maré through family portraits, street photographs, documentary films and written works.
Featured in this book is a selection of the exhibition's photographs by Italian photojournalist Antonello Veneri, who worked closely with Maré resident and activist Henrique Gomes over the period from 2013 to 2019, during which Rio was home to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. These photographs, simultaneously personal and deeply humane, counter long-standing and powerful stigmatizing narratives, demonstrating instead the diversity and resilience of these communities and exposing the barriers residents confront in their everyday lives.
Providing context to the photographs are essays by the exhibition's creators, curators and collaborators, including Maré resident and scholar Andreza Jorge, who asks what it is about the Maré de Dentro exhibition that has made it so compelling for so many people from very different parts of the world. The answer lies in the power of art to make us rethink prevailing social frames and, in turn, embrace fresh political and cultural strategies for integrating previously marginalized communities more fully into political and social life.
Book Chapters by Desiree Poets
Book Reviews by Desiree Poets
https://hdl.handle.net/10919/117590
Unsettling Brazil is based on ethnographically-informed research with five urban Indigenous, favela, and quilombola (maroon) communities and movements (Aldeia Maracanã, Quilombo Sacopã, Quilombo dos Luízes, São Paulo's Indigenous movement, and Complexo da Maré) in three cities of Brazil’s industrialized Southeast Region (Rio, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte). The book investigates how these communities organize in related but distinct ways to secure their land rights and ways of life in the city. Drawing on the knowledge produced by Black and Indigenous organizers and thinkers, Poets argues for an interdisciplinary framework that prioritizes the voices and experiences of these communities. Theoretically, the book places Black and Indigenous thought, Settler Colonial Studies, and Brazilian Marxist Dependency Theory in dialogue to develop the notion “dependent settler capitalism”, and in so doing it pushes at the boundaries of each of these subfields. It also challenges the still common disciplinary and categorical separation of Black and Indigenous movements in scholarship and public policy, and the flawed urban-rural divides that inform it.
O Complexo da Maré, localizado na Zona Norte do Rio de Janeiro e com cerca de 140 mil moradores, é o maior aglomerado de favelas do Brasil. Como este livro demonstra, as 16 comunidades que compõem a Maré são vibrantes e diversas, apesar de serem frequentemente representadas de maneira pejorativa.
Maré de Dentro: Arte, Cultura e Política no Rio de Janeiro acompanha a exibição de mesmo nome, criada por um time internacional de acadêmicos, organizadores comunitários e artistas brasileiros e estadunidenses. Por meio de retratos de família, fotografias de rua, documentários e textos, a exibição documenta as vidas dos moradores da Maré.
Este livro apresenta uma seleção das fotografias que fazem parte do acervo da exibição, tiradas pelo fotojornalista Antonello Veneri em colaboração com Henrique Gomes, produtor cultural, morador e organizador comunitário da Maré, entre 2013 e 2019, quando o Rio de Janeiro sediou a Copa do Mundo de 2014 e os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016. As fotografias, intimistas e profundamente humanas, evidenciam a diversidade e resiliência das comunidades da Maré e expõem os entraves que seus moradores confrontam no seu dia a dia, rompendo, deste modo, com as narrativas que os estigmatizam.
Os ensaios incluídos neste volume, escritos pelos criadores, curadores e colaboradores deste projeto, contextualizam as fotografias. O texto de Andreza Jorge, moradora e pesquisadora da Maré, por exemplo, levanta uma pergunta fundamental: o que faz da Maré de Dentro uma exibição tão comovente para tantas pessoas de diferentes partes do mundo? Parte da resposta reside no poder da arte de nos fazer reconsiderar imaginários e estruturas dominantes e, com isso, abraçar estratégias políticas e culturais que promovam a construção de uma sociedade verdadeiramente igualitária e democrática.
Maré from the Inside: Art, Culture and Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is a companion to the exhibition of the same name (Portuguese: Maré de Dentro), which was developed by an international team of Brazilian and US academics, activists and artists. The exhibition documents the lives of residents of Complexo da Maré through family portraits, street photographs, documentary films and written works.
Featured in this book is a selection of the exhibition's photographs by Italian photojournalist Antonello Veneri, who worked closely with Maré resident and activist Henrique Gomes over the period from 2013 to 2019, during which Rio was home to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. These photographs, simultaneously personal and deeply humane, counter long-standing and powerful stigmatizing narratives, demonstrating instead the diversity and resilience of these communities and exposing the barriers residents confront in their everyday lives.
Providing context to the photographs are essays by the exhibition's creators, curators and collaborators, including Maré resident and scholar Andreza Jorge, who asks what it is about the Maré de Dentro exhibition that has made it so compelling for so many people from very different parts of the world. The answer lies in the power of art to make us rethink prevailing social frames and, in turn, embrace fresh political and cultural strategies for integrating previously marginalized communities more fully into political and social life.
In this framework, a group of friends and colleagues decided to deliver some words as untimely reflections on what happened, on its significance, on its meaning in context.
The Center for Research and Sociological Studies proposed to prepare this Working Document which I am now pleased to present. Beyond stylistic refinement and editorial care, what is presented here are reflections of academics from three continents on what happened. Continuing the critical “dictum” of all the social sciences, the works presented here, brief but incisive, are the testimony of how multiple views and the diverse ways of seeing the world are necessary to elaborate a common criticism of all kinds of injustice and all kinds of inequality.
Contributions argue for the centrality of race, indigeneity & Empire to International Relations scholarship from different perspectives and locations. I turn to the example of policing and international conflict, then take on Robbie Shilliam's (2020) point about 'inheritance' to take stock of existing scholarship on race, Indigeneity, and Empire in IR. The roundtable piece finishes with a brief reflection on the challenges and possibilities of emerging and future research directions.