Fernando Silva e Silva

Biography

I am a transdisciplinary researcher in the fields of Environmental Humanities, History and Philosophy of Science, and Literary Studies. I have been an educator for 15 years. I translate Portuguese, English, French, and German and have experience in many aspects of editorial processes.

I am one of the founders of the Brazilian teaching and research non-profit Association for the Research and Practice in the Humanities (APPH). I am a member of the Anthropocene Commons network, coordinator of the Research Group in the Ecology of Practices (GPEP) at the APPH, and co-editor of the Desnaturadas book series.

In my work, I am concerned with how the responses to the new chapter in Earth’s history, which some call the Anthropocene, might reenact the colonial extraction and world-making processes that wounded our planet and took countless human and nonhuman lives. Since Fall 2020, I have taught many courses on these subjects and authors related to them.

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION INITIATIVES

Research Group in the Ecology of Practices (GPEP) — 2016-present

Together with a team, I have led the Research Group in the Ecology of Practices (GPEP) at the APPH since its inception. It is a transdisciplinary initiative, bringing together researchers and practitioners from different areas and backgrounds, that has organized over two hundred research meetings open to the community, as well as on- and offline conferences and seminars.

Earth and Us — 2022-present

I am one of four coordinators of the Earth and Us [Terra e Nós], a project funded through a series of grants, most of them from Brazilian Federal and State governments, connecting actors working on the challenges of the Anthropocene into a national and international network. We were the organizers of Anthropocene Campus Brasil (2022, Porto Alegre/Brasil) and Anthropocene Campus Latin America (2024, Rio de Janeiro/Brasil).

Anthropocene Commons — 2023-present

I co-founded the Anthropocene Commons Association (a Verein based in Berlin) together with a network of educators, researchers, artists, and activists from around the globe that had been part of the Anthropocene Curriculum until its end in 2022. This network continues to develop a variety of projects connected to our current Epoch, looking for ways to teach and learn together in and for the Anthropocene.