Bastidores de afetos: arremates de uma antropóloga na saúde

Abstract

I chose to write my memorial as part of a life embroidered with many threads. Here, my academic trajectory is not a straight line, but lines that tangle into a winding river, full of tributaries, still waters, and rapids. The bureaucratic data—such as education, publications, and advising—are the riverbanks, shaping the landscape, while lived experiences are the flow of water that rocks the memories. They could also be the steep cobblestone streets whose alleys form paths bordered by houses, buildings, and other landscapes. This memorial is not just a document, but a way of recounting myself, recognizing myself, and celebrating the many encounters in my life. In every stitch and every pause, I sought inspiration in Clarice, who turns the minutiae of daily life into the multiplicity of a scene. In the weave of affections and the landscape of thought, I wished for the poetry of Adélia Prado, who finds the sacred in the ordinary and, in simple gestures, the dimension of miracles. And, finally, I wished to have a bit of Guimarães Rosa’s wisdom, from whom I learned that life is a crossing, that the sertão is the world, and that, in the end, the true story is not at the point of arrival but in the beauty and courage of each step taken.This is, then, the celebration of an academic life embroidered, thread by thread, where the stories of so many dear people intertwine with the journey of a teaching career not always valued. And in the act of telling, I perform myself into the story, unfolding. I avoided repeating information available on my Lattes CV or turning into numbers the publications, advising, and projects that only make sense within their context of production and realization. I must answer the bureaucratic demands and the academic ritual of proving that, throughout this path, I fulfilled the expected duties of teaching, research, outreach, and administration. I chose to list, in footnotes, the articles and other references that bear witness to this collective work.I conclude this recounting of entangled threads with a landscape less provisional—though far from definitive—that conveys a few certainties, such as the importance of believing in the collective, the recognition that the University remains a space for producing and inventing possible lives, and that insisting is worthwhile.