Overview
PhD candidate at the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, University of Exeter, UK. With a mixed background in biology and anthropology, my research interest is in the relationship between humans and nonhumans. ‘Mosquito-researcher’ since 2011, my academic focus has been on understanding the ecology of ‘troubling species’ and its effects on science, technology, society and politics. As a member of the Geography Department of the same university, I contribute with More-than-human Geography, Geography of Diseases and the Science, Technology and Society (STS) Studies.
Broad research specialisms:
Social Anthropology, Multispecies ethnography, Ecology of Vectors.
Qualifications
MPhil Social Anthropology, Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos, Brazil
Links
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Publications by year
2023
Dias Da Silva Maia T (2023). On multiple mosquitoes and the mosquito multiple: disease ecologies and the geographies of vigilância in Sergipe, Brazil.
Abstract:
On multiple mosquitoes and the mosquito multiple: disease ecologies and the geographies of vigilância in Sergipe, Brazil
Mosquito-related diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever are responsible for the death and morbidity of thousands of people and nonhuman mammals in Brazil. This is an ethnographic approach focused on scientists, health workers, governmental administrators, and householders in Sergipe state, northeast Brazil. I accessed these people by mixing practices of online interviews and observant participations. These people deal with a constantly high mosquito infestation and viral infection, and with restricted access to the health budget. A set of incoherent and diverse actions comprising vigilância epidemiológica (epidemiological surveillance) and the immunisation of the (human) population are justified under the allegiance of prevention and contingency of mosquito-related diseases in the state. Specifically, I observe activities on mosquito density control aimed at the prevention of dengue, Zika and chikungunya, something leading me to discuss elements of dirt, data and discipline. Then, I analyse the elaboration of yellow fever vigilância, which is an emerging disease in Sergipe, in order to discuss city-forest borders as zones of ecological negotiations. Finally, I analyse four different stories comprising immunity-led imaginaries as a means to speculate future possibilities of living with. Connecting these different ecologies is the notion of a ‘mosquito multiple’, a concept I develop by overlapping the different conceptions as informed by the diverse informants of this thesis.
Abstract.
Refresh publications
