Dr. Freitas has had significant transnational and multicultural experiences. This is seen in her academic, professional, and personal journeys. Born in Brazil with Indigenous, African, and European heritages, she has always been interested in cultural diversity, especially in Indigenous and Black cultural roots. She grew up travelling throughout Latin America. Since her adolescence, and then as a journalist and scholar, she has been interested in modern and contemporary cultural expressions, especially literature and films. Another venue of long-standing interest is the connections between critical theories and social movements, especially the ones that touch upon issues of gender and race.
Her PhD in Sociology was carried out in United States, at Brown University, and Brazil, at University of Brasília. In her doctoral research, she explored intersections between affect theory, social research, and cultural expressions. Later, during her post-doctorate in Latin American Studies, at Boston University, she became more focused on Indigenous and Black experiences and expressions in Americas, which is still a research interest. Recently, she has been diving into critical Black feminist decolonial studies, such as the ones by Brazilian intellectual Lélia Gonzalez.
Some of Dr. Freitas recent works include: Amefricanity: the Latin America from a Black and Indigenous perspective, paper under review. Indigenous resistance in the heart of Brazil, experiential film created during fieldwork with the Kariri-Xocó Indigenous resistance in Brasília, federal district of Brazil, in 2024/25. The Kariri-Xocó and florestania praxis in Brazil, paper presented in August 2025, at the American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting, held in Chicago, USA. “Só a antropofagia nos une”: devouring of tradition as creative practice in Brazilian art and culture, talk in April 2022, at Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies, in Boston, USA.
Sociology of culture, Affect theory, Decolonial studies, Black feminist theory.