Marialva Barbosa

Marialva Barbosa is a tenured professor at the School of Communication at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She was a senior visiting professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade Fernando Pessoa from 2021 to 2022. She is a researcher at CNPq. She also coordinates the international project “Communication: Hunger, a Bridge to Africa,” funded by CNPq, with the participation of 14 universities in Brazil, Africa, France, and Portugal.

The project

Title: Communication: Hunger, a Bridge to Africa

"This project centers on the theme of hunger and climate and environmental disasters, which are dramatically exacerbating the situation in African countries, and seeks, through thoughtful analysis, to demonstrate how the so-called “looming end of the world”—as experienced by those displaced from that very world—can give rise to new possibilities for existence through alternative ways of life rooted in these territories. The project involves 14 institutions from Brazil, Europe, and Africa, coordinated by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). During its second year of operation, the research will be conducted in collaboration with European partners, notably the University of Paris-Est Créteil, through the Hannah Arendt Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Political Studies. From the very outset, this research (re)establishes lasting connections between Brazil—by highlighting regions historically marginalized in terms of scientific resources (the Northeast and Central-West, within the scope of this project)—and various African countries. As a second dimension, various knowledge-sharing initiatives (notably in teaching and research) between Brazilian and European partners (France and Portugal) have been planned. Empirical reflexive research will reveal equally marginalized productions of meaning that emerge from the past and present of these territories, making communication the space where the visible “other” and dialogue are established. The central idea is to use the enduring myths that exist in these communities to show the present as a possibility for resistance. The coordination and implementation of this network—to disseminate actions, knowledge, and thought—emphasizes sharing as a collective action. In this sense, communication efforts are central from the very outset of the development of multiple reflections and actions on an emerging and critical issue, making communication a kind of human-conceptual link centered on the possibilities for transforming real-world events, such as hunger."

Hosting Institution(s): Université Paris-Est

Selective Bibliography

• Barbosa, M & Rêgo, A. R. Dimensões do tempo. Diásporas africanas e tessituras históricas. Rio de Janeiro : MAUAD X , 2026.
• Barbosa, M. Historia Cultural da Imprensa. O Tempo Presente. Brasil (1980-2010), Rio de Janeiro: MAUAD X, 2024, v.1., p.230.
• Barbosa, M. Comunicação, História e Memória: as “vozes incontroladas” do passado. Mídia e Cotidiano. v.19, p.14 - 27, 2025.
• Barbosa, M.; Ribeiro, A. P. G.; Hohlfeldt, A. História da imprensa no Brasil do século XIX, Porto Alegre/Rio de Janeiro: PUC-RS/ PUC Rio, 2024, v.1., p.551