People
Faculty
Danielle Sanches
Danielle Sanches is a professor at FGV ECMI and a PhD in History of Science at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in cooperation with the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/FioCruz. She currently works on Digital Methods, focusing on the influence of the algorithm culture on social practices.
Denisson Silva
Denisson holds a PhD in Political Science (UFMG), a Master's degree in Sociology and is a Social Scientist (UFAL). He has experience in Political Science, working mainly on the following themes: political parties, party migration, electoral results, and campaign financing. Researcher at the Center for Legislative Studies (CEL/UFMG), the Citizenship and Public Policy Group (UFAL), and research fellow at EMCI-FGV.
Maria Sirleidy Cordeiro
Maria Sirleidy Cordeiro is a PhD and Master in Linguistics at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). She completed part of her PhD program in Portugal at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP). She is a professor at FGV ECMI and a member of the research group on Communication, Society and Digital Media (FGV). She works in the areas of cognitive linguistics, critical discourse analysis and public policy analysis, investigating processes of meaning, ideologies and power relations imbricated in text and discourse.
Polyana Barbosa
Polyana Barboza is a professor working with data extraction and analysis on social networks at FGV ECMI. She has a major in Applied Mathematics at the School of Applied Mathematics of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EMAp) and is a Master in Computer Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). Her main lines of research are Social Network Analysis in Digital Media and Multi-agent Systems in Software Engineering.Speakers
Elias Bitencourt
Elias Bitencourt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design at Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB). He holds a Ph.D. in Communication from FACOM/UFBA and a Master's in Culture and Society from IHAC/UFBA. He was a visiting researcher at the Milieux Center (Concordia University, Canada, 2019) and currently leads the Datalab/Design at UNEB: a center for research and development in data visualization and digital methodologies. His research focuses on data visualization, algorithmic mediation in daily social life, platform studies, digital practices, and imagination. He also collaborates with the Inova Media Lab (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and the international Public Data Lab research network.
Eurico Mattos
Eurico Matos is a PhD and Master in Contemporary Communication and Culture at the Bahia Federal University. He coordinates the Digital Communication undergraduate course at FGV ECMI and is a researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Digital Democracy (INCT.DD). He carries out research on topics such as digital government, political communication, online hate speech and mobile app studies.
Hugo Medeiros
Hugo Medeiros holds a Licentiate Degree in History (UFPE), a Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems (UNESA), an MBA in Data Science (DSA), and a PhD in Education (UFPE), with postdoctoral research in Political Science (UFPE). He is a Government Planning Manager at the State Secretariat of Planning (SEPLAG-PE), where he currently serves as General Manager of Data for Results. He is a Permanent Professor in the Professional Graduate Program in Public Policy (UFPE), advising Master's and PhD research on Education Policy, STI (Science, Technology, and Innovation) Policy, and the use of Technology and Innovation in Public Management. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program in Political Science (UFPE), and as a Senior Researcher at the UFC/FCPC/MEC Center for the Evaluation of the University for All Program (PROUNI).
Jess Reia
Jess Reia is an Assistant Professor of Data Science at the University of Virginia, a 2024 Visiting Scholar at Fudan University and a 2024-2025 Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington, D.C. Before joining UVA, they were appointed Mellon Postdoctoral Researcher at McGill University and BMO Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montreal in Canada. Reia held a two-year mandate as a member of MTL 24/24's first Night Council in Montreal, providing guidance on data collection and open data practices for the night-time economy ecosystem. From 2011 to 2019, Reia worked at the Center for Technology & Society at FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, leading projects on access to knowledge, privacy and smart cities in Latin America and BRICS. They work primarily on data justice, urban governance, and technology policy transnationally.
Leonardo Nascimento
Leonardo F. Nascimento is a professor at the Federal University of Bahia. As the Digital Humanities Laboratory (LABHDUFBA) coordinator, he has contributed to research in digital sociology, digital humanities, and computational social science. He is the author of the book “Sociologia Digital: uma breve introdução - EDUFBA – 2020”. In his current research, he is collaborating with InternetLab, UFSC, and AI for Society on a project investigating the intersection of instant messengers and political violence and utilizing a combination of natural language processing (NLP) techniques and mixed qualitative approaches, including discourse analysis and online ethnography.
Mateus Pestana
Matheus Pestana is a professor at the School of Communication, Media, and Information at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV ECMI), a researcher at the Institute for Religious Studies (ISER), and a member of the New Illegalisms research group (GENI/UFF). He is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), where he also earned his Master's degree in the same field. His current research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and politics/public opinion. He has interests in computer vision, large language models (LLMs), speech recognition, and image detection/segmentation.
Murilo Junqueira
Murilo de Oliveira Junqueira is a Social Scientist and Data Scientist, and holds a Master’s and PhD in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (USP). He is a Consultant at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and a Professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). His work focuses on political institutions, public policy, and data analysis in the Brazilian context.
Tiago Ventura
Tiago Ventura is an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. His research focuses on political communication and online behavior, combining methods from computational social science and political science. Prior to joining Georgetown, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he remains affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Computational Social Science (iLCSS). He also gained experience in the tech industry as a Misinformation Researcher at Twitter.
