Ruby Mascarenhas Neto (they/them)
International Research Training Group 'Temporalities of Future in Latin America'
Postdoctoral Fellow
Anthropology
Project: "Coccinelle’s Crossings in the Southern Cone: Transness and Temporalities in Brazil and Argentina in the 1950s and 1960s"
14195 Berlin
Education
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Since 11/2025 |
Postdoctoral Fellow, International Research Training Group 'Temporalities of Future' |
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12/2023 – 07/2025 |
PhD Candidate, International Research Training Group ‘Temporalities of Future’ |
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11/2019 – 07/2025 |
PhD Candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin, Lateinamerika-Institut, Germany |
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07/2023 – 12/2023 |
Mecila Doctoral Researcher, Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America, CEBRAP, University of São Paulo. |
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10/2016 – 04/2017 |
Research Internship Abroad, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom. |
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03/2015 – 02/2018 |
MSc. in Social Anthropology, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil |
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04/2014 – 07/ 2014 |
Research Internship Abroad, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)/ Centre Européen de Sociologie et Science Politique (CESSP) (France). |
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03/2011 – 12/2014 |
BSc. in Social Sciences, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil |
Work Experience
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04/2023 – 07/2023 |
Lehrbeauftragte at the Seminar 29642-S23: "Ethnography and Political Mobilization: Debates in Contemporary Political Anthropology, FU-Berlin |
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03/2020 – 11/2020 |
Research consultant for the “Queer as German Folk” exhibition by Goethe-Institut São Paulo (GI-SP) & Museu da Diversidade Sexual de São Paulo, in São Paulo, Brazil. |
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05/2015 – 11/2017 |
MSc researcher. FAPESP. |
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08/2013 – 11/2014 |
Undergraduate Researcher - Scientific Initiation. FAPESP – IC. |
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08/2012 – 06/2013 |
Undergraduate Researcher - Scientific Initiation. CNPq/ PIBIC-Unicamp. |
Grants and Fellowships
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07/2023 – 12/2023 |
Mecila Doctoral Researcher Funding (Third-party): BMBF |
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10/2021 – 07/2023 |
Research Grant Doctoral Programmes in Germany - PhD. Research Funding (Third-party): DAAD |
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12/2020 – 09/2021 |
Elsa-Neumann Stipendium für Promovierende – PhD. Research Funding (Third-party): Dahlem Research School/NaFöG. |
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06/2019 – 08/ 2019 |
Teststipendium für potentielle internationale Doktorand*nnen. Funding: Centre for International Cooperation/ FU-Berlin. |
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10/2016 – 04/2017 |
Research Internship Abroad - MSc. Research Funding (Third-party): FAPESP – BEPE-MS. |
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05/2015 – 11/2017 |
MSc. Scholarship. Funding (Third-party): FAPESP – MS. |
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04/2014 – 07/2014 |
Research Internship Abroad - Scientific Initiation. Funding (Third-party): FAPESP – BEPE-IC. |
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08/2013 – 11/2014 |
Undergraduate Research - Scientific Initiation. Funding (Third-party): FAPESP – IC. |
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08/2012 – 06/2013 |
Undergraduate Research - Scientific Initiation. Funding (Third-party): CNPq/ PIBIC-Unicamp. |
Project: "Coccinelle’s Crossings in the Southern Cone: Transness and Temporalities in Brazil and Argentina in the 1950s and 1960s"
In the 1950s and early 1960s, the French singer, actress, and performer Coccinelle (stage name of Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, 1931–2006) emerged as a global icon of transness. Her life achievements, including gender reassignment surgery in Morocco, a controversial church wedding in Paris and her status as a public figure in France, reverberated across Brazil and Argentina. Fascinated by South America, Coccinelle toured the continent and left a lasting impression on a generation of trans artists who regarded her as a symbol of alternative possibilities for living and embodying gender identity. Several artists in Brazil cited her as an inspiration, with some recalling exchanges of hormones and advice on transitioning. In this context, I argue that both mediated and personal encounters with Coccinelle and her history catalysed new sensibilities and imaginaries of the future beyond the cisnormative framework. Her presence, however, also provoked institutional resistance, media sensationalism and commercial exploitation, revealing the contested social positioning of transness in both national contexts. This research explores the temporal dynamics of trans lives in Brazil and Argentina during the 1950s and 1960s, using Coccinelle’s tours as a prism through which to examine affective and historical entanglements between local artists and the French trans icon. Drawing on archival materials and secondary sources, the study reconstructs a transnational network of life stories shaped by Coccinelle’s journeys through the Southern Cone.
Key-words: Queer temporalities; Gender and Sexuality; Trans history; Brazil; Argentina
Monograph
Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2020). Da praça aos palcos: caminhos da construção de uma carreira drag queen. Editora Devires, Brazil. ISBN: 978-65-86481-08-2
Chapters (selection)
Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2023). “Mães, filhas, irmãs e queens: Reflexões sobre as redes de afeto entre drag queens”. In: Freitas, E; Pinto, R. & Zanoli, V. (orgs), Política, Cultura e Sexualidade na América Latina. Editora da UFCAT, Brazil.
Zanoli, V. & Mascarenhas, R. (2019). “We are favela: an ethnographic account on the production of identities, cultures and places”. In: Brunnström, P. & Claesson, R. (Eds) Creating the City: Identity, Memory and Participation. Conference proceedings (pp. 421-440). Malmö University Publications in Urban Studies - MAPIUS (23), Sweden. DOI: http://doi.org/10.24834/2043/28212
Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2015). “Estudos sobre mulheres, gênero e sexualidade no Brasil: os Encontros Anuais da ANPOCS (1979-2012)”. (Poster). In: Ramos, T. R. O., Zandoná, J., Duarte, C. R., Osório, J. T. (Eds) Fazendo Gênero 10 Imagens e Memória: um livro-pôster (p.95). Florianópolis: Copiart.
Articles (selection)
Carvalho, Renata; Iazetti, Brume D.; Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2024). “Precisamos trapacear a língua: entrevista com Renata Carvalho.” Dossiê: Saberes trans/travestis em disputa. Revista Anômalas, n.1, v. 4. Disponible en: https://periodicos.ufcat.edu.br/index.php/ra/article/view/74844/39243
Iazetti, Brume D. & Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2024). “Do ‘Cisminário Queer’ ao ‘Caso Miskolci’: traçando controvérsias.” Dossiê: Saberes trans/travestis em disputa. Revista Anômalas, n.1, v. 4. Disponible en: https://periodicos.ufcat.edu.br/index.php/ra/article/view/74846/39234
Iazetti, Brume D. & Mascarenhas Neto, R. (org.) (2024). Dossiê: Saberes trans/travestis em disputa. Revista Anômalas, n.1, v. 4. Disponible en: https://periodicos.ufcat.edu.br/index.php/ra/issue/view/2340/94
Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2023). “‘Die schwarze Venus aus Rio de Janeiro’: notes on race, nationality, class, gender, and sexuality in an artistic career between Brazil and Germany”. Travessia – Revista do Migrante, 96. Available at: https://travessia.emnuvens.com.br/travessia/article/view/1151
Schmidt, B. B. & Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2021). “History and Memory of Dissident Sexualities from Latin America: An Analysis of the Foundation, Current Activities, and Projects of AMAI LGBTQIA+”. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 5(4). DOI: https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v5i4.36914
Mascarenhas Neto, R. (2021). “É tudo uma máfia”: trânsitos e tensões na busca de um lugar no palco. Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad, 37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-6487.sess.2021.37.e21213a
Mascarenhas Neto, R. & Zanoli, V. (2019). “Black, LGBT and from the favelas: an ethnographic account on disidentificatory performances of an activist group in Brazil”. Culture Unbound, 11(1), pp. 124-140. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.2019111124
Mascarenhas Neto, R. & Zanoli, V. (2016) “Escola, política, família e religião: disputas em torno da chamada ideologia de gênero”. Novos Debates - fórum de debates em antropologia, 2(1), pp. 77-81. Available at: http://novosdebates.abant.org.br/images/pdf/v2n2.pdf
