Anthropologist | Social Researcher | Educator
I’m an Assistant Professor of Comparative Studies at the Ohio State University. I have a Ph.D. in Anthropology from The New School and worked as a Lecturer at the National University of Singapore before joining OSU. My teaching and research center on postcolonial and feminist studies of science and technology with a focus on Brazil and its global South connections.
My ongoing research and book project – Disputed Recombinations: Improvisation and Everyday Technology in Brazil – examines how improvisational abilities and techniques have been thought of, performed, and valued across a range of sites of technological production, from innovation hubs and repair shops in São Paulo to electronics factories in the Amazon. Based on long-term fieldwork, this project contributes to debates on labor, skill, creativity, global tech inequalities, and inclusive innovation and design. You can read about it in my articles, “A Fablab at the Periphery,” published in American Anthropologist, and “Becoming a Repair Entrepreneur,” published in Third World Quarterly. My scholarship has been supported by the Fulbright Program, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Wenner-Gren Foundation, National Science Foundation, and American Council of Learned Societies.
Previously, I completed a master’s in Medical Anthropology at the University of Coimbra with a visiting period at the University of California, Berkeley. In my master’s thesis, I wrote about art practices involving frontier areas of science and emerging technologies. As an instructor, I have taught anthropology, social theory, STS, and cultural and media studies to graduate and undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds and career inclinations.
I also happen to be a first-generation college student who has had the luck and privilege to study in multiple places. I honor the opportunities I was given through a personal commitment to cultivating diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia.
I’m open to collaborations within and beyond my discipline. Please reach out at gils.1 [at] osu.edu.
