Research interests: Cultural Ecology; Human-Animal Studies; Environmental Anthropology; Anthropology of Ritual; Anthropology of Food
Giovanna is trained as a social anthropologist with a particular interest in environmental anthropology, human-animal studies, historical ecology, and ‘naturecultures’. She is the co-convenor of the Human and Other Living Beings EASA Network (@HOLBnetwork).
During her PhD at the University of Roehampton, she worked within the AHRC-funded “Cultural and Scientific Perception of Human-Chicken Interaction” interdisciplinary project. She conducted multi-sited fieldwork in Italy and Brazil looking at animal sacrificial practices and perception of the environment in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé, developing perspectives in the fields of anthropology of ritual, material culture and more-than-human ontologies.
In 2019 she started a second fieldwork as a postdoctoral researcher within the TANDEM “Bewildering Boar” project (CEFRES/Charles University, Prague) focusing on the management of wild boars and human-wildlife conflicts in the Central Italy.
In 2020 she obtained a postdoctoral fellowship at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, where she worked on the endings of ritual artefacts and offerings, ritual change and environmentalist ethics in Afro-Brazilian religions.
In 2021, she came back at the University of Roehampton to start a new project on cat-feeding practices within the “From ‘Feed the Birds’ to ‘Do Not Feed the Animals’ ” interdisciplinary project.
PUBLICATIONS (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7196-3627)
Peer review journals
2020 Capponi G., Carneiro P. Araújo. “Occupying New Spaces: the “Digital Turn” of Afro-Brazilian Religions During the Covid-19 Outbreak”, in International Journal of Latin American Religions, Special Issue Covid-19 and Latin American Religions. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-020-00121-3
2020 Capponi G. “The taste of waste: reclaiming and sharing rotten food among squatters in London”, in Food, Culture, and Society, 23(4): 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2020.1773691
2020 Capponi G. “Overlapping values: religious and scientific conflicts during the COVID‐19 crisis in Brazi” in Social Anthropology, 28 (2): 236-237. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12795 (2 citation)
2020 Charlier P., Deps P., Capponi G., Huyn-Charlier I. “First X-ray and CT-scan of a Brazilian macumba-curse” in Forensic Imaging, 21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fri.2020.200380
2020 Capponi G. “Candomblé Rituals and Food Practices in Italy and Brazil: an ethnographic comparison”, in Antropolítica, 48(1): 119-141. https://doi.org/10.22409/antropolitica2020.0i48.a772
2018 Capponi G. “The Garden and the Market: human-environment relations and collective imaginary in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé between Italy and Brazil”, in Studia Religiologica, 51(3): 165-178. (1 citation) https://doi.org/10.4467/20844077SR.18.012.10096
Book chapters
2019 Capponi G. “Apresentação”, in Lemos K., No Candomblé quem é homem e quém não é?. Metanoia Editora: Rio de Janeiro, pp. 3-4.
2019 Capponi G. “Sobre a importância das palavras: breve apologia do termo “sacrifício”, in Araújo P.C., Candomblé sem sangue? Pensamento Ecolôgico Contemporâneo e Trasformações Rituais nas Religiões Afro-Brasileiras. Appris Editora: Curitiba, pp. 3-4
2014 Capponi G. “Chaos in the Street, Order in the Kitchen: Pratica gastro-politiche di consumo e ridistribuzione tra gli squatters di Londra”, in Pop Food, il cibo dell’etnografia. Eds. Z. A. Franceschi & V. Peveri, Odoya Editore: Bologna, pp. 53-80
Encyclopedia Entries
2020 Capponi G. “Skipping”, in The Global Encyclopedia of Informality vol. 2. Ed. A. Ledeneva UCL Press: London, pp. 41-44.
2020 Capponi G. “Marmotagem”, in The Global Encyclopedia of Informality vol. 3. Ed. A. Ledeneva UCL Press: London. Online version: https://in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Marmotagem_%28Brazil%29
