Rede Folkcom to discuss popular communication and disasters at TEIAS 2026
Free online sessions on November 18 and 23 will bring together researchers affiliated with institutions in four countries
Rede de Estudos e Pesquisa em Folkcomunicação (Rede Folkcom) will take part in the VII Congresso Internacional Brasil in Teias Culturais: Pós-Apocalípticas with a program dedicated to popular communication in territories affected by socio-environmental disasters. Three panels will be held on November 18, followed by an international session on November 23. The congress runs from November 18 to December 18, 2026, and is organized by the Pós-Crítica graduate program at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB).
Part of the symposium “On the before and after: folkcommunication, disasters and practices of resistance,” the sessions will explore how affected populations communicate their experiences and contest the terms of reconstruction.
The program addresses the long aftermath of disasters. Even after news coverage subsides, disputes over reparations and the difficulties of living in transformed territories remain. In this everyday reality, cultural expressions help make losses visible and sustain ties between people. The symposium’s post-apocalyptic perspective focuses on precisely these experiences of life continuing.
Music and celebration in the face of disasters
On November 18, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., the panel “Celebrating, sustaining life: music and popular culture in the face of disasters” will bring together researchers from Brazil and Chile. The discussion will consider how cultural practices help people process loss and resume community gatherings. Andriolli de Brites da Costa, of Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), will moderate.
Cristian Yáñez Aguilar is a professor at the Institute of Social Communication of the Universidad Austral de Chile and holds a PhD in Human Sciences. In research on Tralcao, in southern Chile, he examined how singer Francisco Manquecheo uses his compositions to denounce environmental degradation. The analysis treats these songs as a way of communicating residents’ resistance to changes in their territory.
A PhD candidate in Communication at UERJ with a master’s degree in Communication and Culture from the Universidade de Sorocaba (Uniso), Matheus Lima Schwab e Silva researches the marchinha-based carnival of São Luiz do Paraitinga and its relationships with memory and environmental disasters. The relationship between festivities and the experience of disaster is also discussed in an article he coauthored with Gabriela Gelain, drawing on examples from Brazil and the United States.
Nastassja Nicole Mancilla Ivaca, a journalist with a PhD in Social Sciences, is affiliated with the Social Psychology of Memory Program at the Universidad de Chile. In a study with Cristian and Víctor Hugo Valenzuela, she analyzed the revival of the wampo, a traditional Mapuche boat, as a practice of resistance to natural resource extraction projects in Panguipulli. The work examines how reviving a cultural practice expresses territorial claims.
Myth and water imaginaries
Next, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m., “When the river falls ill: myth, the imaginary and worlds affected by disaster” will bring together Juliette Woitchik, Carolina Santos da Cunha and Andriolli de Brites da Costa. Matheus Lima Schwab e Silva, of UERJ, will moderate.
An anthropologist affiliated with UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles in Belgium, Juliette examined the relationships between residents of Regência, in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, and the Rio Doce after the Fundão dam collapse as part of her doctoral research. Her work traces how contamination transforms ties with the river and questions the invisibility of these relationships in compensation processes.
Carolina Santos da Cunha is a journalist, a research fellow at the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (Ibict), and holds a master’s degree in Innovation in Communication and the Creative Economy from the Universidade Católica de Brasília. In an article coauthored with Florence Dravet and published in 2026, she draws on Donna Haraway’s tentacular thinking and multispecies relationships as ways of considering communication and care in a damaged world. This work offers a basis for discussing ties between human communities and other living beings in affected environments.
A professor at UERJ and president of Rede Folkcom, Andriolli de Brites da Costa holds a PhD in Communication and Information from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and completed postdoctoral research in Cultural Criticism at UNEB. His research focuses on myth, oral tradition and the imaginary. On the panel, he will discuss the caboclo d’água and water imaginaries after the flood, connecting these interests to the relationships between popular narratives and the experience of living alongside rivers.
Urban communication and socio-environmental justice
From 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., the panel “Contesting the city, communicating life: urban intervention and socio-environmental justice” will discuss urban interventions and hip-hop as forms of denunciation and mobilization, also considering their relationships with cultural journalism. Andriolli de Brites da Costa will moderate.
Thífani Postali Jacinto is a professor in Uniso’s Graduate Program in Communication and Culture and holds a PhD in Multimedia from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). The author of “Blues e Hip Hop: uma perspectiva folkcomunicacional” (“Blues and Hip-Hop: a folkcommunication perspective”), she studies hip-hop as communication from urban peripheries, paying attention to what its participants say about living conditions in the city.
Ana Paula Sallum Nicoletti holds a master’s degree in Communication and Culture from Uniso. Her dissertation examined government and environmental education advertising about the Sorocaba River. In research coauthored with Thífani, she also studied women’s participation in Batalha Beco das Mina, part of Sorocaba’s hip-hop scene. These studies consider who communicates the city and how different groups participate in this production of meaning.
Rafael Silveira Gloria is a journalist, holds a master’s degree in Communication from UFRGS, and is a cofounder of Nonada Jornalismo. His work connects cultural journalism with climate justice. His published reporting includes coverage of the effects of flooding on the book sector in Rio Grande do Sul and of young activists who combine culture with efforts to confront environmental racism. In this reporting, he follows both the harm to cultural practices and communities’ efforts to mobilize.
Samantha Viana Castelo Branco Rocha Carvalho, a professor at the Universidade Federal do Piauí, holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Social Communication from the Universidade Metodista de São Paulo. Her studies address the regionalization of journalism and folkcommunication. On the panel, this experience will inform a discussion of how the press recognizes cultural actors and incorporates the issues raised by communities.
The discussion draws on the concept of the media activist: people whose work connects community experiences with the media and institutions. This question concerns both cultural production within territories and the public circulation of communities’ demands.
International dialogues in folkcommunication
“International Dialogues on Folkcommunication and Disasters” will take place on November 23, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., with Madhubhashini Hewage, a professor at The Open University of Sri Lanka and coordinator of the Communication Unit in its Department of Social Studies. Andriolli de Brites da Costa will moderate.
Hewage holds a PhD in Communication from the National University of Malaysia and undertook part of her research training at the National University of Singapore. Her studies encompass disaster communication and traditional forms of popular communication, with a focus on strengthening rural communities.
In a study published in 2026, she examined how a Tamil community in Sri Lanka’s highlands uses traditional communication to address everyday difficulties, including precarious housing and landslide risks. The research offers an opportunity to discuss connections between popular communication practices developed in different social contexts, taking into account knowledge circulating within communities themselves.
All Rede Folkcom activities will take place online. Participation is free, and attendees can register through the congress page on Even3. All times are Brasília time.
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