University of Richmond Professor Awarded Fulbright to Study Gender and Sexuality Representation in Brazilian Magazines

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — University of Richmond professor Mariela Méndez has received a Fulbright Scholar Award to support three months in Rio de Janeiro to advance her research on understanding representations of genders and sexualities in Latin American newspapers and magazines.

Méndez’s research focuses on newspapers and magazines as spaces of cultural intervention and as platforms for feminist advocacy. She is an associate professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies and women, gender, and sexuality studies.

Méndez will spend three months at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, working on her project Model(ed) Genders in O Cruzeiro: Representations of Mainstream Femininities during the years of Brazilian desenvolvimento (1956-1961).

She will focus on O Cruzeiro, a popular Brazilian magazine, and will explore the sections that targeted women during the late 1950s to better understand the links between socio-economic projects, the shaping and policing of gendered identities, and the press during that time. 

This work is part of a larger project that aims to compare representations of genders and sexualities across various Brazilian magazines of the 1950s and 1960s.

“The goal of this project is to enhance our understanding of the diversity and uniqueness of magazines and newspapers as cultural, material objects, and, more broadly, to contribute to the history of the periodical press across the Americas,” said Méndez.

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The Fulbright program, which aims to increase mutual understanding between people of the U.S and people of other countries, is overseen by the U.S. Department of State. Grants are made possible by funds appropriated annually by Congress along with contributions from partner countries and the private sector.