Mariana LAMEGO, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Institutional Brazilian geography since its beginnings in 1930 was always populated by women. As teachers in schools, as geographers in Government Agencies, as academic professors and researchers. Although numerous and vigorous, women are absent in the main narratives of Brazilian geography. The traditional historiography of Brazilian geography still produces male-dominated narratives. Even though feminist and gender perspectives on geographical investigations are now consolidated in Brazil, a feminist gaze on historical narratives on geographical knowledge production asks effort for a renewal agenda informed mainly by decolonial approaches on knowledge production. The paper represents an attempt to fill this gap, focusing on women Brazilian geographers who developed their careers in the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Most of these women achieved high professional status during their lifetime, becoming headship of important research from 1950 until 1970. Despite their recognized leadership among colleagues and the outstanding quality of their scientific production and contribution to geographical knowledge, both were silenced in the literature about Brazilian geography. In this paper, I explore some aspects of the place and time of production of those women geographers, whose research was very emblematic during the most productive and influential phase of the geography produced in the Institute of Brazilian Geography and Statistics. I focus on their performance within the social and professional hierarchy of IBGE. At the same time, I stress the different treatment received by both women regarding some narratives in the history of the discipline. The paper also seeks to raise questions on the rich production of these Brazilian geographers, asking if it is possible to find traces of a gendered-oriented reflexive position, considering their main research questions.
Mots clés : women geographer|collective biography|critical feminist historiography|Brazilian geography|The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
A103687LM