This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2020-2021.

Evie Domingue is an MRes in Arts and Humanities candidate, whose research focuses on representations of Afro-Brazilian women in the media and the ways they represent themselves in their own media productions. In this interview, I speak with Evie about, amongst other things, her reasons for pursuing research on this topic, the strong sense of urgency it holds in Brazil’s current socio-political context, and her advice for those thinking of doing an MRes.

Prior to postgraduate study, Evie completed her BA Hons in Spanish and Portuguese at Queen’s University Belfast. She cites the ‘Brazilian Digital Culture’ module that she completed in her final year, taught by her MRes supervisor Dr Tori Holmes, as having sparked her interests for both media and Brazilian studies. It also gave her the opportunity to incorporate her passion for race studies into the aforementioned topics. She notes that the independent study she completed as part of this module gave her insight as to what was to come for the MRes.

In terms of methodology, Evie is analysing various forms of media – a YouTube channel, music, a film, a streaming platform and a telenovela (serial drama) – and picking up on the most prominent themes within this material. She notes that whilst her project is still developing and evolving, so far she has found recurring topics in her research material to be issues of identity, black aesthetic standards in the realm of self-representation, and black female protagonism.