Maria José de Abreu

Maria José de Abreu's work engages with a range of anthropological, philosophical, and literary debates about religion, temporality, movement, personhood, the human senses, and their technological extensions. De Abreu's first book project "The Charismatic Gymnasium: Grace and Extension in Contemporary Brazil" centers on a form of Catholic revivalism in contemporary urban São Paulo, Brazil (forthcoming with Duke University Press). A second project in progress is dedicated to thinking impasse as a condition intrinsic, though not exclusive, to neoliberal governance. Focusing on Portugal during and after the 2008 financial crisis, this second project is an attempt at theorizing from spaces of tension and performative paradox in ways that make decision—though not governance—difficult or impossible. Her ethnographic work has been supported by Fundação para Ciência e a Tecnologia, Lisbon, Forum for Transregional Studies, Berlin, ICI-Berlin, and Rework: Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History, at Humboldt University in Berlin.