Queer Indigeneity and Anti-Authoritarianism in Brazil

How do queer natives in Brazil face the challenges of settler-colonial policies implemented by Jair Bolsonaro’s administration? That is, how do queer natives respond to the government’s racism and homophobia, and the threats to the environment? The answer to these questions will be explored through a critical discussion of oral testimonies, and archival records that show queer native activists’ struggles against authoritarianism in Brazil.

Estevão Fernandes teaches in the Social Sciences Department at the Federal University of Rondônia in Brazil, and currently holds the Craig M. Cogut Visiting Professor position at Brown University. He is the author of Existe Indio Gay? A Colonização da Sexualidades Indígenas no Brasil (2017), and Gay Indians in Brazil: Untold Stories of the Colonization of Indigenous Sexualities (With Barbara Arisi, 2017).

Co-sponsored by UNC-CH’s Department of Romance Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies at Carolina, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Institute for the Study of the Americas, and the UNC-CH/Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.