About

The Brazilian Network of Television Fiction Researchers (Obitel Brazil) was awarded funding in the Pro-Humanities call by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in 2022, under CNPq/MCTI/FNDCT Call No. 40/2022.

 

The approved project, entitled “Brazilian Television Fiction as a Resource for the Promotion of Citizenship,” aims to explore the understanding of the telenovela as a communicative resource available for Brazilian multisectoral public policies and is based on two main pillars:

 

1) A meta-investigation of the body of knowledge produced by the Obitel Brazil Network over the past 15 years, to identify the main theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and results consolidated in the research conducted by the groups, as well as to map the themes and intersectionalities that represent Brazil’s major social issues as portrayed in the plots of national teledramaturgy;

 

2) The proposal of pedagogical, educational, and science communication inputs to expand the reach of the findings related to the Brazilian telenovela as a communicative resource for the promotion of citizenship, through the development of workshops, training activities, teaching materials, lesson plans, and reference libraries for educators at various educational levels, as well as reports, policy papers, seminars, and workshops for public and private agents involved in the fields of Education, Culture, Citizenship, and Human Rights, among others.

 

In addition to the two pillars mentioned, the Obitel Brazil Network also conducts, throughout the grant period, the 2023–2024 biennial research focused on investigating the telenovela Pantanal (TV Globo, 2022) as a communicative resource for citizenship. The results will contribute to consolidating the findings from the meta-investigation process and to the development of educational and science communication materials within the proposal.

 

The project “Brazilian Television Fiction as a Resource for the Promotion of Citizenship” is led by Professor Dr. Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes, leader of the Center for Telenovela Studies (CETVN) at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP), and involves participation from doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate researchers from more than 10 Brazilian educational institutions.

 

The Pro-Humanities call — a Scientific and Technological Development Program in Humanities by CNPq — aims to support research, development, and innovation projects in the broad areas of Human Sciences, Applied Social Sciences, and Linguistics, Literature, and Arts. It is oriented toward producing innovative scientific knowledge to tackle major national challenges and problems, and to foster social, economic, scientific, political, and cultural development in Brazilian society, especially among vulnerable populations.

 

Obitel Brazil was awarded funding under Line 3B – Network Projects – Public Policies for Human and Social Development.