Luísa Reis Castro
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anthrobite.bsky.social
Luísa Reis Castro
@anthrobite.bsky.social
4.1K followers 1.2K following 320 posts
Anthropologist of science, health & the environment in an unequal 🌍 | thinks a lot about Brasil & bugs 🦟 🦠

Assistant Prof at the University of Southern California; before MIT, Maastricht Univ, UFMG

In a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles – ela/she
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anthrobite.bsky.social
Luísa Reis Castro @anthrobite.bsky.social · Aug 6
🦟 Can the Mosquito Bite? 🦟
The Multispecies Transmutation of Wolbachia Mosquitoes as Biotechnologies of Epidemic Control in Rio de Janeiro

How does the use of a bacterium in vector control reconfigure biopolitical relations?

New article at @estsjournal.bsky.social! #STSsky #AnthroSky
Print Screen: Can the Mosquito Bite? The Multispecies Transmutation of Wolbachia Mosquitoes as Biotechnologies of Epidemic Control in Rio de Janeiro ABSTRACT A bite from the Aedes aegypti mosquito can transmit pathogenic viruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. While public health campaigns have historically focused on eliminating this vector species, a project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, proposes to release A. aegypti carrying the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia. This microbe, passed from female A. aegypti to their progeny, would hinder viral transmission, making the bite less of a threat and promoting a more convivial coexistence. In releasing Wolbachia mosquitoes, project proponents presented their strategy as a solution for disease control that harnessed “nature,” instead of working against it. By juxtaposing historical accounts and ethnographic research in Rio with descriptions of biological processes, this article investigates how the microbe-mosquito dyad was turned into a biotechnology of epidemic control. Proponents of the Wolbachia project hoped that a change within multispecies relations—the novel human-bacterium-mosquito relationship—would change other multispecies relations—the historically constituted human-virus-mosquito relationships in Rio and beyond. This shift, which I term “multispecies transmutation,” highlights how relational alterations in both biologies and socialities created a new life-form (“Wolbachia mosquitoes”) and a new form of life (of multispecies coexistence). By tracing the more-than-human biopolitical arrangements put forward by the project, this article explores the recalibration of technoscientific solutions to global environmental health concerns. Multispecies transmutation offers a new framework for understanding the management of multispecies relations, showing how techniques of governance can target not individuals or populations per se, but rather interspecies connections.
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
sorayanadiamcdonald.com
Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
calebscoville.bsky.social
I'm chairing this year's Student Paper Award and Environmental Sociology Outstanding Publication Award committees for ASA's Environmental Sociology section. Please check out the calls and submit your best eligible work and/or that of your colleagues, students, etc. www.asanet.org/communities-...
January 13, 2026 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
chrislhayes.bsky.social
I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.

Biden himself said they were fabricated!

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war
Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...
www.haaretz.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
kimlanelaw.bsky.social
NATURE has done a terrific (if depressing) job of summarizing the devastating cuts to science during Trump's first year. At this point, only the willingness of the House and Senate to restore research budgets prevents scientific extinction. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains
A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce.
www.nature.com
January 21, 2026 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
ipeat-ut2j.bsky.social
📢 Appel à candidatures – Chaire Amérique Latine (ChAL)
La ChAL accueille des enseignants-chercheurs de toute nationalité, spécialistes de l’étude des sociétés latino-américaines.
📄 Le dossier de candidature est à télécharger ici : ipeat.univ-tlse2.fr/.../chaire.....
#Chaire #Amérique #Latine
January 12, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
annikajanus.bsky.social
My department is hiring! Open rank faculty position in Helsinki Anthropology

jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
Professor / Associate Professor or Assistant Professor / of Anthropology
Professor / Associate Professor or Assistant Professor / of Anthropology
jobs.helsinki.fi
January 6, 2026 at 6:25 AM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
atrupar.com
Q: China, Russia, and Iran have interests in Venezuela. How does this operation affect your relationships with them?

TRUMP: In terms of other countries that want oil, we're in the oil business. We're gonna sell it to them. We'll be selling oil.
January 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
My takeaway from every new Epstein revelation is that some powerful people victimized many powerless young women, many more knew, some actively enabled it--and we're still being told that MeToo and accountability for sexual violence have gone too far
November 12, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
kendrawrites.com
I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.
November 5, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
tomphillips.bsky.social
“It’s so sad to see what’s happening in our communities. It’s terrible what the people who live there are going through … Those who live in war zones will understand this pain, this despair and this revolt.”
Thousands join protests in Rio favela after deadliest ever police raid
Demonstrators demand inquiry after operation on Tuesday in which at least 121 people were killed
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
cecillia.com.br
ICE deteve a diretora brasileira durante entrevista para obtenção do green card: "Ao final do que nos disseram ter sido uma reunião bem-sucedida, o policial usou a desculpa de uma copiadora quebrada para enganá-la e fazê-la se afastar do nosso advogado. Uma vez separada de seu adv, ela foi presa."
billwearsties.bsky.social Bill Wolkoff @billwearsties.bsky.social · Sep 29
Finally Barbara’s story is getting national attention. New update from her gofundme: she is now in a Louisiana ICE processing center after three days of travel in shackles. She’s sleeping on the floor and has been denied care for her medical condition.
September 29, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
envhistnow.bsky.social
Can you keep us sustainable? EHN is volunteer-run, but we need to cover our costs for hosting the website. If you value what we do, chip in $6 or whatever you can below ko-fi.com/envhistnow
September 17, 2025 at 5:48 PM
anthrobite.bsky.social
#AcademicSky #AnthroSky 👇

I just deleted my account...
September 17, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
erikahilton.bsky.social
🚨 URGENTE

A Câmara pode votar hoje a PEC DA BLINDAGEM, uma proposta que serve pra impedir que políticos corruptos sejam presos.

👉🏽 Também chamada de PEC DA BANDIDAGEM, ela determina que deputados só poderão ser investigados pela Polícia com autorização dos PRÓPRIOS DEPUTADOS em VOTAÇÃO SECRETA. +👇🏽
September 16, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
beatrizdiniz.bsky.social
Abertura do Jornal Nacional pra colecionar
"A história do Brasil tem a primeira condenação de um ex-presidente da república por tentativa de golpe de Estado"
September 11, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
cristianfarias.com
Justice Sotomayor, once again, get to the heart of the matter here:

"We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job."
mjsdc.bsky.social Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · Sep 8
BREAKING: By an apparent 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court halts an injunction that had prevented immigration agents from racially profiling Latinos in central California.

Sotomayor, dissenting, says the decision is "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation's constitutional guarantees."
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26085894-25a169-order/
September 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
anthrobite.bsky.social
Lecturer in Nature, Environment and Society #STSsky
About the role The postholder will be expected to develop a research programme in areas relevant to Science and Technology Studies, with a particular focus on nature- and environment-related subjects. For the purposes of this position, nature and environment may be construed liberally to include, but not be limited to, natural resources, human and more-than-human relationship, humans and other animals, the built environment, environmental history, environmental knowledge, climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, sustainability, all approached from an STS perspective. Applications from scholars with a focus on the Global South are especially welcome. This is a 100% FTE appointment starting in January 2026 until 31 July 2028.
September 4, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
carlosfnorena.bsky.social
NEW: Tenure-track position in History at UC Berkeley in the GLOBAL HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY.

We are casting a wide net here: *all* periods, places, and fields are under consideration.

I'm on the search committee, so do let me know if you have questions.
Assistant Professor – Global History of Technology - Department of History
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
August 28, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
economist.com
Brazil offers a lesson in democracy to an America that is becoming more corrupt, protectionist and authoritarian econ.st/4peBqLR
August 28, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
lolennui.bsky.social
So many adults have to fail a child before he ends up 10 years old telling CNN about the mass shooting he lived through this morning
August 27, 2025 at 9:09 PM
anthrobite.bsky.social
#STSsky
August 14, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
kopyor.bsky.social
We had a lot of fun writing this! It’s a nice distillation of what we’ve learned over the past three years editing American Ethnologist, and how we have applied our vision for it. Link in 🧵below.
#Anthropology #AnthroSky #publishing #PeerReview #academia
amethno.bsky.social American Ethnological Society // American Ethnologist (journal) @amethno.bsky.social · Aug 3
📢📢📢 New Editorial Alert 📢📢📢

American Ethnologist editors lift the lid on the ‘black box’ of journal submission...

An Editorial Insight: Know your Anthro journals! Read the last few issues to get a sense of AE’s style, how theory and ethnography work together to propel the argument.
August 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Luísa Reis Castro
sanders.senate.gov
18,500 children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Despite these war crimes, the US has provided more than $22 BILLION for the war.

Our taxpayer dollars are being used to starve children, bomb schools & gun down hungry people as they wait for aid.
August 7, 2025 at 5:59 PM