51����

Tuesday April 21, 2026
4:00–5:30 PM CT (5:00–6:30 PM Mato Grosso do Sul)
Zoom webinar –  for link to join
This event will be recorded and shared afterward with all who register.

Este evento contará com interpretação simultânea em inglês e português. Veja abaixo os detalhes completos em português do evento.

Centering Indigenous Knowledges in Contemporary Brazil

In this online panel we will hear from three Brazilian educators (broadly defined) about their work promoting the wellbeing of their Native communities and cultures in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Drawing from the fields of cultural geography, human rights, film, education, and beyond, these panelists will discuss how the worldviews of the Terena and Guató peoples inform their professional work in Brazilian universities, primary schools, and cultural institutions and media. 51���� professors Mark Freeland (Anthropology, American Indian studies) and Susana Antunes (Portuguese) join them to draw comparisons across regions and disciplines. This discussion will be in both English and Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation for both languages.

About our speakers

Antônio Hilário Aguilera Urquiza

Antônio Hilário Aguilera Urquiza holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Salamanca, Spain (USAL) and completed postdoctoral studies at UNTREF, Argentina. He is Full Professor Emeritus at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul and PI of the research group in Anthropology, Human Rights, and Traditional Peoples. Aguilera Urquiza’s academic work is the result of more than 30 years of work among Indigenous peoples, with an emphasis on the themes of territorial rights, indigenous education, interculturality/decoloniality, and the perseverance of indigenous peoples in higher education. He is a member of the Board of Directors of ABA (Brazilian Association of Anthropology – 2025/2026) and has coordinated the Indigenous Knowledge in Schools Action (Secadi/MEC) in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul since 2013.

Paulo Baltazar

Paulo Baltazar holds a PhD in Geography from the Federal University of Grande Dourados. He is a professor at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (Aquidauana campus), teaching in the Indigenous Intercultural degree program focused on peoples of the Pantanal. His research specialties include the Terena language; cultural geography; ethnogeography; anthropology; and territorial management. In 2023 he was awarded an honorable mention in the Maurício Almeida Abreu Thesis Award 2023, by the postgraduate program at the Federal University of Grande Dourados.

Gleycielli Nonato Guató

Gleycielli Nonato Guató is a writer, screenwriter, actress, and cultural producer from the Guató indigenous people of the Pantanal (Mato Grosso do Sul). She holds a graduate degree in Arts, Literature, and Culture. Her artistic production spans literature, oral tradition, and audiovisual media, affirming indigenous ancestry, feminine strength, and territory as a space for memory and identity. In cinema, she develops narratives that highlight the contemporary Indigenous presence, with a sensitive and poetic view of the Pantanal. Her language articulates daily life, spirituality, and oral tradition, creating works that dialogue between past and present. Her work is marked by poetic realism and an original, decolonial authorship. The living memory of the Pantanal and the Indigenous female voice are at the center of her aesthetic, reaffirming cinema as a space for cultural resistance and identity affirmation.

Susana L. M. Antunes

Susana L. M. Antunes holds a PhD from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and is Associate Professor of Language, Literature, and Lusophone Cultures at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she also serves as Coordinator of the Portuguese Program. Her research interests focus on methodologies for teaching Portuguese as a second language (L2), contemporary poetry in Portuguese, travel literature, and island literatures (Ecocriticism, Geopoetics) in Portuguese, French, and English, from a humanistic and comparative perspective. Among her many collaborations, Antunes is a researcher in the research group Landscape Studies in Portuguese-Language Literatures at Brazil’s Federal Fluminense University, as well as at the Centre for Comparative Studies of the University of Lisbon, where she participates in the project to create a Digital Encyclopedia in Island Studies. She is also a translator for the International Institute of Geopoetics, France. She has published on these topics in national and international journals and edited volumes.

Mark Freeland

Mark Freeland is Bear Clan and a member of the Bahweting community in Northern Michigan (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Chippewa). He received a Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology and a Ph D in Religious and Theological Studies from the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver joint doctoral program. His research critically identifies the role of Indigenous worldview as an integral component of cultural and linguistic translations. His book, Aazheyaadizi: Worldview, Language and the Logics of Decolonization, provides a theoretical grounding for understanding the problematic role that religion continues to play within Indigenous communities and calls for a deeper involvement of the logics of worldview in the regeneration of Indigenous lifeways and protection of our relationships to our environment.

This event is presented by the UW-Milwaukee Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education.

---

Colocando em Destaque os Saberes Indígenas no Brasil Contemporâneo

Terça-feira, 21 de abril de 2026
17h00–18h30 (Mato Grosso do Sul) / 16h00–17h30 (Milwaukee, Chicago)
Webinar pelo Zoom –  para obter o link de acesso
Este evento será gravado e compartilhado posteriormente com todos os inscritos.

Neste painel online, ouviremos três educadores brasileiros (em sentido amplo) falarem sobre seu trabalho na promoção do bem-estar de suas comunidades e culturas indígenas no estado do Mato Grosso do Sul. Com base em áreas como geografia cultural, direitos humanos, cinema, educação e outras, esses palestrantes discutirão como as visões de mundo dos povos Terena e Guató influenciam seu trabalho profissional em universidades, escolas de ensino fundamental, instituições culturais e meios de comunicação brasileiros. Os professores da Universidade de Wisconsin em Milwaukee Mark Freeland (Antropologia, Estudos Indígenas da América do Norte) e Susana Antunes (Português) se juntam a eles para fazer comparações entre regiões e disciplinas. O evento será realizado em inglês e português, com interpretação simultânea para ambas as línguas.

Sobre nossos palestrantes

Antônio Hilário Aguilera Urquiza

Antônio Hilário Aguilera Urquiza é doutorado em Antropologia pela Universidade de Salamanca, Espanha (USAL), e pós-doutorado na UNTREF, na Argentina. É professor Titular e Emérito da Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul e líder do grupo de pesquisa Antropologia, Direitos Humanos e Povos Tradicionais. A produção acadêmica é fruto de mais de 30 anos de trabalho entre os povos indígenas, com ênfase nos temas dos direitos territoriais, educação indígena, interculturalidade/decolonialidade e permanência de indígenas na educação superior. Faz parte da Diretoria da ABA (Associação Brasileira de Antropologia – 2025/2026) e coordena desde 2013, no estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, a Ação Saberes Indígenas na Escola (Secadi/MEC).

Paulo Baltazar

Paulo Baltazar é doutor em Geografia pela Universidade Federal de Grande Dourados. É docente da Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul (campus de Aquidauana), no curso de Licenciatura Intercultural Indígena. Pesquisador com ênfase na Língua Terena; Geografia Cultural; Etnogeografia; Antropologia e Gestão Territorial. Em 2023, recebeu uma menção honrosa no Prêmio Maurício Almeida Abreu de Tese, pela PPGG – UFGD – Dourados/MS.

Gleycielli Nonato Guató

Gleycielli Nonato Guató é escritora, roteirista, atriz e produtora cultural indígena do povo Guató do Pantanal (MS). Pós Graduada em Artes, Literatura e Cultura. Sua produção artística atravessa a literatura, a oralidade e o audiovisual, afirmando a ancestralidade indígena, a força feminina e o território como espaço de memória e identidade. No cinema, desenvolve narrativas que evidenciam a presença indígena contemporânea, com um olhar sensível e poético sobre o Pantanal. Sua linguagem articula cotidiano, espiritualidade e tradição oral, criando obras que dialogam entre passado e presente. Seu trabalho é marcado pelo realismo poético e por uma autoria originária e decolonial. A memória viva do Pantanal e a voz feminina indígena estão no centro de sua estética, reafirmando o cinema como espaço de resistência cultural e afirmação identitária.

Susana L. M. Antunes

Susana L. M. Antunes, doutorada pela Universidade de Massachusetts, Amherst, é Professora Associada de Língua, Literatura e Culturas Lusófonas na Universidade de Wisconsin-Milwaukee, onde desempenha também as funções de coordenadora do Programa de Português. Os seus interesses de pesquisa concentram-se nas metodologias de ensino da língua portuguesa como L2, poesia contemporânea em língua portuguesa, literatura de viagem e literatura de ilhas (Ecocrítica, Geopoética) em português, francês e inglês numa perspetiva humanístico-comparada. Entre suas muitas colaborações, é investigadora no grupo de pesquisa Estudos de Paisagem nas Literaturas de Língua Portuguesa, da Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brasil, e no centro de Estudos Comparatistas da Universidade de Lisboa, onde participa no projeto de criação de uma Enciclopédia Digital em Estudos Insulares. É também tradutora do Institut Internacional de Gépoétique, França. Autora de várias publicações sobre esses temas em revistas nacionais e internacionais e capítulos de livros.

Mark Freeland

Mark Freeland pertence ao Clã do Urso (Bear Clan) e é membro da comunidade Bahweting, no norte de Michigan (Tribo Sault Ste. Marie do Chippewa). Obteve o título de Mestre em Teologia pela Iliff School of Theology e o doutorado em Estudos Religiosos e Teológicos pelo programa de doutorado conjunto da Iliff School of Theology e da Universidade de Denver. Sua pesquisa analisa criticamente o papel da cosmovisão indígena como componente integral das traduções culturais e linguísticas. Seu livro, Aazheyaadizi: Visão de Mundo, Língua e as Lógicas da Descolonização, oferece uma base teórica para compreender o papel problemático que a religião continua a desempenhar nas comunidades indígenas e apela a um envolvimento mais profundo das lógicas da visão de mundo na regeneração dos modos de vida indígenas e na proteção de nossas relações com o meio ambiente.

Este evento é organizado por dois departamentos da Universidade de Wisconsin-Milwaukee: o Centro de Estudos Latino-Americanos e do Caribe e o Instituto Electa Quinney para a Educação dos Índios Americanos.

For most of 2025, 51���� student Lucca Marcello (Film Production major, Portuguese minor) worked closely with 51���� researchers to steward their 18 years of fieldwork materials on Brazilian folk heritage for the next generation of scholars. The result is a centralized database cataloging tens of thousands of research materials – heading soon to the University of Florida’s Latin American and Caribbean Collection – a documentary feature highlighting the collection, and valuable work experience for Marcello as he prepared for graduation in December 2025.

The research project in question is Professor Simone Ferro’s (51���� Dance emerita) nearly two decades of ethnographic research on , a UNESCO-recognized based in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão and which spans musical performance, choreography, theatrical and ritualistic performance and playful expression. In partnership with Ferro’s longtime research partner Professor Meredith Watts (51���� Political Science emeritus), these collaborations with communities in Maranhão have resulted in a vast trove of video footage, audio interviews, still images, and original artifacts that capture the richness of how this tradition informs community life across northeastern Brazil.

With over 20,000 still images, more than 500 hours of performance videos, and more than 200 interviews, Ferro and Watts knew they needed a research assistant who had both the technical precision and cultural sensitivity to assess and organize these multimedia materials into an easy-to-navigate digital repository for anyone to access for decades to come. Through 51����’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and Department of Spanish & Portuguese (now World Languages & Cultures), they found a perfect match in Marcello.

Lucca Marcello had just spent the 2024-25 academic year as a FLAS Fellow in Portuguese through CLACS: the prestigious federal grant for language and area studies allowed him to take courses in Portuguese language and cultures as he pursued the minor. 51���� Professor Susana Antunes recommended Marcello, whose strong coursework in the area had developed a deep cultural understanding and strong language skills to be able to work with the hours of Portuguese-language interviews in the archive. As a result, he was able to establish a comprehensive metadata framework whose conceptual framing of materials will support public communications about the project for years to come.

As Professor Ferro notes, “The scope of this undertaking required not only rigorous organizational competence but also the intellectual agility to navigate between scholarly transcription, visual anthropology, and audiovisual archiving. Marcello demonstrated a rare capacity to integrate technical precision with cultural sensitivity, approaching each document as both artifact and living testimony within a fragile ecosystem of memory.” Drawing on his skills as a Film Production major through the Peck School of the Arts, Marcello was also able to expand on the original vision Ferro and Watts had outlined for archiving the materials, developing both a feature-length documentary highlighting these dances as well as individual edited videos to educate about and preserve this tradition, posted on YouTube.

For Marcello, whose family is from southern Brazil, the yearlong collaboration was an opportunity to expand his cultural knowledge and produce original research: “There are 2000 miles between Porto Alegre, the city where my family is from, and São Luís, the capital of Maranhão … learning about Maranhão’s traditions made me realize how incredibly diverse Brazil is. I learned about Afro-Brazilian rituals which blend traditional Africanism with Catholicism, and with my undergraduate research I submitted an academic article about the Bumba meu Boi festival to Revista Luso-Hispánica.”

This work, which was supported by an academic internship in Portuguese and a SURF award from the 51���� Office of Undergraduate Research, provided invaluable experience in archive management, documentary production, and publicly-oriented research communication. Ferro emphasizes that “[Lucca’s] presence within this ambitious project has been anchored in collaborative rigor, artistic discernment, and a profound respect for the communities represented – qualities that have strengthened both the scholarly integrity and the future public life of this singular archive.”

These cross-disciplinary collaborations are the heart of the work of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, enabling connections across disciplines that deepen research knowledge and communicate its importance to broader audiences. As Marcello looks to continue working in documentary production, he can point to a strong portfolio of work in public storytelling and cultural documentation that is already reaching new audiences.