Gathered by: Chera Jo Watts Katia Costa-Santos is an independent scholar from Brazil who lives in Rio de Janeiro. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Romance Languages from the University of Georgia with a minor in African-American Studies and a Certificate in Women's Studies. She is a fiction writer and a translator. Could you tell us a little bit about your general research interests? I am interested primarily in the subject of Black women and writing – with an emphasis on the USA and Brazil. As I started working on my minor in African-American Studies (2001-2003), I started to understand how important the “written word” (in comparison with the dominance of oral culture and oral history in Brazil regarding the Black population) could be for a full account of the Black Experience in the Black Diaspora. That is exactly why I became interested in the topic of Black women and the construction of knowledge. During my third year of studies at UGA, while working on my Ph.D degree in the Department of Romance Languages/Portuguese, getting a certificate in Women’s Studies, and a minor in African-American Studies, I was selected for the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholar program. During the summer of 2003, I worked with a research project examining the racial and social barriers to education for Afro-Brazilian women, having the African-American experience as a kind of blueprint. The title of my closing seminar was “Black Women and the Construction of Knowledge: Afro-Brazilian and African-American Women Meet in the Black Diaspora.” What are your experiences with UGA, and more specifically, the Institute for African American Studies? Returning to UGA in the Fall of 2003, I had a better idea of what I wanted to investigate regarding Black women and education: I wanted to understand what was the meaning of writing for Black women. I wanted to find out what their writings were about – independent of the genre of their choices. Was fictional literature something that could help us to properly register the Black experience from a female perspective? Was it important to have this specific perspective on the Black struggle in the Black Diaspora? Why? Therefore, the classes I took at the Institute for African-American Studies were fundamental to pave the way for this exciting and inventive scholarship I was designing for myself. The courses I took, first, with Dr. R. Baxter Miller showed me the complete cultural history of the United States and made me fall in love especially with Langston Hughes. For example, it was in his classes that I first heard of and read Maya Angelou and Annie Moody. Also, Dr. Barbara McCaskill was responsible for a “revelation moment” for me in terms of Black women and intellectual life, not only for the myriad of female intellectuals she put us in contact with, but also because of her outstanding background and expertise as a Scholar – I am still impressed, to this day. Additionally, I have Dr. Lesley Feracho to thank, for opening up this Afro literary world for me, starting at the Department of Romance Languages – as a teacher and later as a member of my research committee. She was the one who told me about the possibilities of scholarship through the IAAS when she learned about my research interests. That is why by the time I first met Dr. Patricia Bell-Scott during her course about Black Women and Writing, in the Women’s Studies Institute at UGA, I was quite ready for she had to offer us, her students: a fully and sensitive comprehension of the work of Black women writers, and the importance of their work. Her course was, indeed, a turning point in both my personal and intellectual life. Since you graduated with your Ph.D. from UGA in 2005, what have you been working on in terms of your research? Before coming back to Brazil, I acted as a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte (2005-2026), and at Emory University (2006-2008), always teaching about Brazilian language, culture and literature, and race relations in Brazil. Also, this was the period when I started exploring the field of Popular Culture as a research topic and as a subject of undergraduate and graduate courses at Emory University. This stemmed from my dissertation work in which I had a Brazilian female singer and composer, Dona Ivone Lara, as a case study, and I wanted to explore some issues I identified at the time I was writing my dissertation. In 2008 I came back to Brazil and started sharing my knowledge on African-American Culture in all opportunities, including in any kind of job, cultural interaction, or activity I had. In 2010 I published a book on Dona Ivone Lara (Ivone Lara, a Dona da Melodia), as a way of talking about Black women as popular culture artists in Brazil. As I have recorded the wonderful interview I did with her in 2004, in 2020 I was able to make a short documentary with that interview. This includes the rare footage of her at that age, 83 years old, sitting comfortably in her living room while telling me everything about her career and her life as a retired nurse, Samba composer, and singer. Also, my book was extensively used in a musical in Brazil about her life in 2019. She passed away in 2018, but she is still taking me on some exciting rides. For instance, our last adventure together was in a podcast series called “Musica Negra do Brasil” in which I wrote and narrated her life and accomplishments as a Brazilian female pioneer in so many fronts. In Brazil, for years now, as an independent scholar, I have been teaching a course called “Black women and Writing: Reflection and Textual Production.” The main idea of this course is to invite people to examine some writings (from Brazil and the US) while looking for information on the Black experience, oraliture, popular culture, intersectionality, and the female body. At first, I had to do a lot of translations of some Black writers from the US, mostly female, but nowadays it is easier to find a lot of work translated into Portuguese, specifically, Brazilian Portuguese. Between the years of 2013 and 2016 I had the honor and the pleasure to work for two Federal institutions in Brasília, capital of Brazil. First, I worked as an International Advisor for Cultural and Academic Affairs, at Palmares Cultural Foundation (2013-2015), and later (2015-2016) as a Cabinet Advisor for Academic Affairs, at Secretariat for Policies to Promote Racial Equality (SEPPIR). In both of them I was able not only to put into service all my academic expertise regarding the Black experience in Brazil and the USA, but also to develop other professional and political abilities regarding Cultural Studies, for instance. This theoretical approach to the studies of culture and literature in the Black Diaspora was very relevant for my research, including with my postdoctoral research (entitled “New Writings in Old Towns: Creative Writing, Black Women and Cultural Studies”) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 2011, as part of the Advanced Program of Contemporary Culture (PACC) in which I am still a fellow. Further, I have been acting as a Co-coordinator of one of its laboratories, the Black Studies Lab, since September 2020. Is there anything else you would like to add? I have to mention that while working in Rio de Janeiro for the CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) I had the enormous satisfaction of working with the study abroad programs from Virginia State University (Spring) and from Spelman College (Summer) in 2019. This meant that I was responsible for the content and cultural events regarding these programs in Rio and also listed as instructor of record. It was an amazing experience, for instance, to “hang out” with foreigner Black students in the affluent neighborhoods of Rio where Black people and people of color in general circulate mostly during their work period only. As I am always thinking about the city and the Black body, it was a privilege to witness this “experimento” first hand. I have published an article about a similar issue – more in a personal note – where I share some thoughts about this subject, it’s called “Black Girls in Ipanema” – it’s available online here: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2022.2118021. Currently, I am working as an Editorial Coordinator of an Educational material of a program called A Cor da Cultura/The Color of Culture; reviewing translation of African-American fictional authors published in Brazil. Further, I act as a sensitivity reader for some cultural producers in the country, along with many other related activities. Most importantly, I am still investigating the issue of Black women and writing for a book project,, and also, working on another publication about Black Mothers in Brazil, a project developed inside the Black Studies Lab with two other colleagues. Contact Information and Related Links The IAAS is excited and grateful to amplify the work of Dr. Katia Costa-Santos. Please see below for her contact information and relevant links to works referenced in this article. Email: katia.costasantos@gmail.com Instagram link for Ivone Lara, a Dona da Melodia: https://www.instagram.com/adonadamelodia?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw Podcast link: https://radiobatuta.ims.com.br/podcasts/musica-negra-do-brasil/2-dona-ivone-lara-um-samba-raro-atemporal Black Studies Lab webpage: https://pacc.letras.ufrj.br/laboratorio-estudos-negros/
