Bio
Angela Torresan - Researcher/Director
I live in Manchester where I have been teaching visual and social anthropology at the University of Manchester, Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, since 2007. Before then I spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. I took a Bachelors degree in Social Sciences and a Masters degree in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, my hometown. My PhD was in Social Anthropology with Visual Media at the University of Manchester.
My research interests are varied and span from indigenous people in Northeast Brazil, middle-class Brazilian migration to London and Lisbon, and more recently to urban renewal and securitization in Rio de Janeiro favelas.
I lived in Vidigal in 2014 and have returned twice since for shorter periods. I am deeply thankful to the people I met there who received me in their neighbourhood and their lives with a generosity I have rarely experienced. This website is dedicated to them.
William de Paula Lucas, known as Ninho - Researcher/Collaborator
Ninho started his artistic and cultural life in 1989 at the Grupo do Teatro Nós do Morro, a not-for-profit theatre group in Vidigal. He studied theatre, music, languages, but his main interest has always been the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, which took him to study Physical Education at Centro Universitário Algusto Motta (Unisuam) where he graduated with a Licentiate in 2013 and a BA in 2016.
Following the social and economic changes in Vidigal, Ninho joined the School of Tourism (Cieth) in 2017 and trained as a tourist guide. In 2019 he completed the language extension course at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC). With more than 20 years of social work in the Vidigal favela, in the sports and cultural arena, William de Paula Lucas successfully launched himself as a candidate for the Tutelary Council of Rio de Janeiro, taking office in 2020.
Kieran Hanson - editor
Kieran Hanson (MA Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester) is a filmmaker at Kenawa Films in Manchester, UK. With a specialisation in ethnographic documentary practice, Kieran collaborates with researchers, artists and cultural institutions to creatively explore the human world through film and media.
