Piscitelli, Adriana

Cadernos Pagu

English

Repositorio da Producao Cientifica e Intelectual da Unicamp

cadernos pagu (47), 2016:e16470 
ISSN 1809-4449 
PRESENTATION 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/18094449201600470000 
Presentation 
The articles here, which were presented at the seminar 
Repensando Gênero e Feminismos [Rethinking Gender and 
Feminisms], reflect the spirit that has permeated Pagu over the 
past 20 years and display innovative thinking in the different lines 
of research at the Pagu Nucleus. This thinking was expressed in 
the articulation between the incorporation of new research 
problematics, the formulation of innovative questions and shifts in 
analytical frameworks. Informed by a critical feminist spirit, this 
articulation has led to the production of valuable knowledge, 
situated in the “South” which can and should dialog with equal 
status with knowledge from other regions of the world. This spirit 
has led our researchers to establish close relationships with social 
movements and to interact with various government agencies, to 
support the formulation of public policies in Brazil.  
Considering this political commitment, we began the 
seminar with two round table discussions about feminisms, 
materializing another aspect of the spirit of Pagu: the special 
attention given to young generations, investing in the development 
of researchers and in  “generational repositioning”- it is precisely 
this investment that allowed us to bring together experienced 
feminists and young feminists.  
Serious questionings were raised at these roundtables about 
the fact that the Brazilian state has not accepted historic demands 
that are central to feminism such as the right to abortion. This 
problematization was combined with readings of the “new 
feminisms” and critical perceptions about sectors of the movement 
that exclude the voices of some women. These questionings 
acquire special value considering the trajectories of the feminist 
academics who participated in these roundtables, who have been 
dedicated to working with indigenous women in Latin America; 
migrants in Spain; Saharawis; women in prison and prostitutes. It 
should be noted that various participants promoted an articulation 
between the feminist movement and prostitutes, an approximation 
that is still not common in Brazil, which contributed to the shift of 
cadernos pagu (47), 2016:e16470                Presentation 
 
women who are marginalized in political space. It is not possible to 
mention the contributions of all of the participants, but we 
highlight how this articulation between a critical spirit, innovative 
thinking and political commitment was present in various ways at 
the two round tables.  
Serious questionings were raised during the seminar of 
perspectives that erase the various dimensions present in sexual, 
economic and emotional exchanges, by considering them 
inherently violent and linked to human trafficking, when they 
involve people of poor regions of the world, who are racialized 
and sexualized. The effects of the expansion of ideas found in 
transnational regimes for combatting human trafficking were 
vigorously problematized, highlighting how they shift attention 
from aspects that generate poverty and violence in the global 
economy, and how these regimes, in the case of Brazil, debilitate 
historic causes of social movements.  
Studies about gender and media are still rare in Brazil, but 
they constitute a significant research field at Pagu. Various studies 
presented at the seminar creatively showed how articulations 
between categories of differentiation (gender, sexuality, nationality, 
“race” and ethnicity) are triggered in various media. At times, 
these intersections permeate processes of racialization and 
sexualization that contribute to the production of inequalities. At 
other times, media like the Internet propitiate sexual encounters, 
stable relationships and even marriages and in these cases, 
contribute to the strategic triggering of differences that allow the 
realization of personal projects. These studies show how the media 
can open spaces of agency, and can simultaneously be used with 
various and even opposing political interests.  
The studies presented at these discussions also provide us 
valuable reflections about re-configurations of the conventions of 
gender and sexuality, considering articulations between pleasure 
and danger. In the realm of critical reflections about the 
relationship between science and politics, they call attention to 
how our work is forced to face terms that were incorporated as 
native categories in the public debate, for example, consent and 
cadernos pagu (47), 2016:e16470        Adriana Piscitelli and Iara Beleli 
 
vulnerability. And they also call attention to the need to reflect on 
how our studies have been incorporated (and re-signified) in 
various public realms, often in a startling manner.  
The papers presented also provide reflections about the 
contributions of intersectional and post-colonial feminist studies to 
studies of gender, science and technology. In parallel, they raise 
important criticisms of the processes of academic 
internationalization and observations about the need to strengthen 
Latin American integration. Moreover, they raise new questions 
about science and technology, and about how to think of sexism in 
scientific production, considering the articulations between gender, 
sexuality and race.  
At this seminar, various studies
1
 presented an extraordinarily 
interesting overview of various dimensions of care in different 
countries – one of the new lines of research at Pagu. There was 
also relevant critical questioning of the localization in the global 
economy of caregivers, who are often migrants; about the policies 
some governments use to shift the care activities, reallocating them 
once again to families and mainly to women, and of the 
perceptions of the beneficiaries of public policies in Brazil.  
The fundamental questions about gender in labor relations 
point to the renovation that these studies produce by introducing 
the concept of gender, but also by highlighting aspects that still 
need to be incorporated to attain a full understanding of how the 
articulation with other categories of differentiation operates in the 
realm of these relations.  
Concluding this presentation we reiterate the words of 
Antonia Pedroso de Lima, LONGA VIDA AO PAGU! [LONG LIVE, 
PAGU!], and hope our students and young researchers share this 
desire. It is up to them to see that Pagu can realize future 
celebrations, of 30, 40 and many more years.  
Adriana Piscitelli 
Iara Beleli  
                                                          
1
 Articles written based on these studies were published in issue 46 of the journal 
cadernos pagu. 


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http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/bitstream/REPOSIP/322917/2/2-s2.0-84988025809eng.pdf

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