SPECIMEN #2025-F: Digital Sanctuaries: Afro-Brazilian Identity in Elite Academic Spaces

• In Event: Digital Ecologies of Hope: A Natural History of Emerging Media Futures

Abstract

This autoethnographic study examines how Afro-Brazilian students navigate elite academic institutions through Instagram-based identity work and creative practice. Research documents displacement experiences and digital strategies for cultural reconnection within predominantly white educational environments. Instagram feeds featuring Black women intellectuals become vital community sources, providing frameworks for processing isolation and developing resistance strategies. The practice extends to creating handmade dolls that reconnect with cultural roots, serving as therapeutic tools and physical manifestations of identity work. Digital interactions and creative practices establish alternative pathways to belonging within environments designed for cultural erasure. This research reveals how marginalized students create hybrid survival strategies through combined virtual and material practices. The work contributes to understanding cultural identity maintenance strategies, documenting approaches for resisting institutional assimilation while claiming authentic space within elite educational contexts.

Author

• inara bezerra ferreira de sousa, Teachers College, Columbia University