Filipe Calvão
Assistant Professor
Anthropology and Sociology
Graduate Institute of International Studies Geneva
Switzerland
Biography
Filipe Calvão’s research focuses on the intersection between nature, culture, and capital in postcolonial Africa. Based on fieldwork in the mining region of Lunda, his dissertation examined the underlying cultural manifestations of Angola's diamond economy to detail how labor, commoditization, and sociality challenge or reinforce corporate governance, state sovereignty and security, as well as the political economy and ecology of mineral extraction. Most recently, he has published on corporate mining and the semiotic qualities of diamond trading in Angola, with previous work on medieval history, modern European colonialism and late imperialism in Africa, based on archival and ethnographic research in Portugal, Mozambique, and Angola.
Research Interest
He has taught on resource extraction in the global economy, the anthropology of corporations, and social theory, and is currently preparing a book-length manuscript on diamond mining in Angola and a series of articles on diamond diggers and kimberlite mining, divination and corporate secrecy.
Publications
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Filipe Calvão (2006) “In the Absence of a Metaphysical Field: An Interview with Marshall Sahlins,†Exchange, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago (with Kerry Chance).
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Filipe Calvão (2006) "Equilibrium and Conflict", in Colonialism & Imperialism: between ideologies and practices, Diogo Ramada Curto (ed.), EUI, no. 2006/1.
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Filipe Calvão (2013) “The Transporter, the Agitator, and the Kamanguista: Qualia and the in/visible Materiality of Diamonds,†Anthropological Theory 13: 1/2.
