The Urban Anthropology Center/NAU (today LabNAU, laboratory), celebrates three decades of activities – it began in 1988 – inspired by the initiative of two professors, Ruth Cardoso and Eunice Durham. In a department based mainly on classic authors, fundamental to the study and research in the area of indigenous ethnology (as was tradition at the time) and long before the current discussion about gender and female presence in the academic area, Ruth and Eunice led a turnaround: from the choice of study topics as postgraduate students – not without disagreements with the advisors – to the lines of research of their own students, already as professors in the Department of Anthropology at USP.
One of its initiatives, the “Monday Seminars”, which gives the title to this proposal, opened an opportunity for students to get in touch with unconventional authors in the bibliography of the department's programs at the time: Louis Althusser, Antonio Gramsci, Saskia Sassen, Jean Lojkine, Michel Foucault, Nicos Poulantzas, Howard Becker and others, from different orientations and areas of knowledge and outside the scope of classical Anthropology.
This initiative coincides with a certain situation, the “discovery of the periphery” in the city which, already in the 1970s, had social, political and economic consequences and affected the way of life of its residents. In this way, a range of research objects was opened up for his advisees and advisees – and not just in São Paulo. In the book From the Periphery to the Center: Research Trajectories in Urban Anthropology (2012) I describe this entire process in detail; here is just a quick mention, to justify this proposal and the title, which also incorporates the collection of books that LabNAU coordinates with several publishers. The idea is to resume the legacy of this seminar, opening space for the reading and discussion of contemporary authors, not necessarily linked to the area of Urban Anthropology, to expand the panorama that is sometimes restricted to the scope of ongoing research projects. To this end, a meeting is proposed every fifteen days (on Monday, of course), led by an exhibitor, having previously indicated a cutting-edge, highly controversial text (book chapter, article, conference)...< /p>
There will be eight meetings in the first semester of 2024, alternating between presentations by professors from the Department who have already been invited and postgraduate students, so as not to overload and allow time to read the indicated texts. The seminars will be open not only to the faculty and students of our Department, but to members of other university centers who already participate in LabNAU research groups and to anyone else who is interested. I will then send the calendar with the title of the presentations and the texts recommended for prior reading. For this semester, four teachers were willing to participate and the idea is that the seminar will continue, so that each colleague can subsequently present the current state of reflections and research in their respective areas.