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2024

Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence

Patrícia Vieira, interviewed by Kseniia Gavrilova to Luxiders Magazine - Primavera/Verão

Interview about today’s environmental challenges and Patrícia Vieira’s research in the field of environmental humanities published in issue 11 of Luxiders Magazine.

Leonardo Tello and Radio Ucamara

May 25

In this episode we talk to Leonardo Tello, head of Radio Ucamara, a radio station in Nauta, a city located on the banks of the Marañon River in the region of Loreto. Together with his colleagues, Leonardo launched several projects that seek and demand respect for the rights of Indigenous peoples and the river. We were joined by Emanuele Fabiano, an anthropologist and researcher at CES of the University of Coimbra, and Marta Nin, director of Casa Amèrica Catalunya.

Culture of Anti-Racism

Lúcia Sá interviewed by Karen Shiratori | February 16

In this interview, Lúcia Sá talks about her academic and political trajectory, and about her project on the culture of anti-razism. The interview took place at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra on February 16, as part of the event “Monoculturas: Perspetivas Eco-Culturais”, organized by the project ECO – Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin.

Agro is not pop

Denilson Baniwa interviewed by Renato Stutzman | February 16

In this interview, held in Coimbra on February 15 on the occasion of the congress “Monoculturas: Perspetivas Eco-Culturais”, Denilson Baniwa talks with Renato Stutzman about art, politics and agribusiness.

Environmental history, monocultures and Vortex

Frank Uekötter interviewed by Raphael Uchôa |
February 16


In this interview, Professor Frank Uekötter shares insights into his academic journey and discusses the overarching theme of environmental history. Dr. Uekötter delves into topics such as global history, public history, memory, and their relevance to environmental history, while also explaining the scope of his latest project focused on monocultures. Additionally, Dr. Uekötter introduces the general outlines of his most recent book, The Vortex: An Environmental History of the Modern World.

2023

Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene

Patrícia Vieira entrevistada por Kate Brejle | November 13

In this episode of Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene, Patrícia Vieira discusses her ongoing research projects Eco – Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin and Resilient Forest Cities of the Amazon, as well as her research on critical plant studies.

Nature as a Source of Knowledge and the Possibilities
of Thinking about History beyond Written Documents

José Augusto Padua interviewed by Elena Gálvez |
February 16

In this interview, José Augusto Padua questions the modern division between nature and culture to consider the impact of this separation on historiography, reflecting upon notions such as landscape, the non-human communities with which human societies have coexisted and without which it would not be possible to think of history, and written sources as the only valid discourse for historiography.

A Dialogue with the Forest can Heal. A Testimony from
the Shiwiar Forest

Rosa Chuji Gualinga interviewed by Elena Gálvez |
January 31

In this interview with the Indigenous leader Rosa Chuji Gualinga, we address her personal story to understand the Indigenous relationship with the Amazon rainforest. Rosa tells us how she built her expertise in the medicinal plants of the Amazon through dreams and conversations with people from the Shiwiar community. She also addresses the problem of extractivism and its impact on Amazonian territories, especially on water sources that are populated by animals and by spirits. Rosa shows us how she relates to the forest through her singing, and also how songs are an important source of historical memory.

Rights of Nature, Extractivism and Isolated Peoples in
21st Century Amazon

Esperanza Martínez interviewed by Elena Gálvez |
January 18

In this interview with Esperanza Martínez we address the problem of territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon region, threatened by extractive industries: oil extraction, which has a long history in the area, and mining, which has grown enormously in recent years. Martínez analyzes the mechanisms through which it has been possible to use these territories, almost always Indigenous lands, as spaces open to different external pressures. Finally, she addresses this issue from a philosophical point of view, focusing on the Rights of Nature.

2022

Practical Knowledge Systems of the Indigenous
Peoples of the Northwestern Amazon

João Paulo Tukano interviewed by Raphael Uchôa |
October 13

The interview features Dr. João Paulo Tukano, a Ye’pamahsã (Tukano) indigenous activist, anthropologist, and professor at the Federal University of Amazonas. In the interview, Dr. João Paulo discusses his personal and academic journey while highlighting the differences between Western science and knowledge systems developed in the Amazonian context. The interview also delves into the political significance of the Indigenous Medicine Center of the Amazon and its establishment. The conversation took place on October 13, 2022, at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, as part of the “Plant Humanities in the Amazon” event organized under the ECO: Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin project.

Amazonian Narratives: Nature as Subject

Juan-Carlos Galeano interviewed by Elena Galvéz | May 3

Juan Carlos Galeano is professor of Hispanic-American literature at Florida State University. In this interview, he discusses his life as an entry-point to Amazonian universes, where nature is a living agent, both in terms of organic existence and of symbolic meaning. Galeano’s work is a bridge that allows us to access the distant voices of Amazonian natures, through an important work of compiling the oral tradition of Indigenous peoples and nationalities and through the constant re-elaboration of these symbols by virtue of his poetic creation. The interview took place at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra on May 3, as part of the event “Rivers of the Amazon: Poetic Affluents and Contested Modernities,” organized by the project ECO – Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin.

Riverine Poetics, Nation and Power in the Amazon

Javier Uriarte interviewed by Raphael Uchôa | May 3

This interview with Dr. Javier Uriarte, professor of Latin American literature at Stony Brook University in New York, explores some of his research topics, including travel literature, the Latin American territorial imagination and the processes of state consolidation in the Amazon. The interview took place at the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra on May 3, as part of the event “Rivers of the Amazon: Poetic Affluents and Contested Modernities,” organized by the project ECO – Animals and Plants in Cultural Productions about the Amazon River Basin.