Transformations of Differences and the Construction of Political Vocabularies:

an Interview with Silvia Aguião

Abstract

The present interview took place on a Tuesday afternoon when I and anthropologist Silvia Aguião met through a video call, which allowed us to converse from such distant places. Currently, Silvia is in Maranhão, where she teaches at the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), and she is also an associate researcher at the Center for Research and Training in Race, Gender, and Racial Justice (AFRO-CEBRAP) and the Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM/UERJ). On the other hand, I was in São Carlos, where I am pursuing a master's degree in Sociology at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar).

For a little over an hour, we discussed her research trajectory, which began during her undergraduate studies at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), a time when she was interested in understanding mestizaje (racial mixing) relations. We discussed how gender, race, sexuality, and other categories of differences have produced theoretical-analytical-epistemological effects and transformed over time, as we went through her master's dissertation and her doctoral thesis, which celebrates ten years of publication this year. We talked about the role of the University as a producer of knowledge and how research, whether "engaged" or not, produces effects in the social world. We also talked about the impact of the entry of "new subjects" into the Public University due to Affirmative Action policies, the intensification of conservatism in Brazil in recent years, and finally, her future projects.