Pedro Figueiredo Neto (Tomar, 1984). Architect, anthropologist and filmmaker.
His final thesis in Architecture (School of Architecture, University of Porto - FAUP) led him to conduct fieldwork in Bairro 6 de Maio, an informal district in the outskirts of Lisbon - a circumstance that eventually led him to engage in anthropology. In 2016, he obtained his PhD in Anthropology by the ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and by the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS-Paris) with the thesis A world on the move. Operative horizons among Angolan refugees and returnees (Mehab refugee camp, Zambia), supported by the FCT (SFRH/BD/84332/2012). During his PhD research he was also a visiting scholar at the Development Studies department in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS - University of London).
His investigation focus on events of forced displacement - due to violence, extractive activities and/or environmental change -, urban informal development and the proliferation of spaces of exception - such as refugee camps and resettlement schemes -, but also on the (re)elaboration of borders, the role of mobility and its relation with political mobilization, mainly in the Southern African context. Currently, he is a postdoctoral research fellow at ICS-UL, being involved in a comparative study between the Meheba refugee camp and the resettlement schemes resulting from the Moatize coal mines, Mozambique. The main goal of such investigation is to grasp the differences/similarities between the humanitarian and the development realms, their discourses and institutional strategies with regard to social and spatial segregation (SFRH/BPD/115071/2016).
His multidisciplinary approach led him to publish articles on different subjects and to make several short films. He was also a researcher in the project Silent Rupture. Intersections between Architecture and Cinema. Portugal 1960-74 (FCT/PTDC/EAT-EAT/105484/2008), at FAUP in 2010/2011. Since 2016 he is invited professor at ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, where he lectures "Anthropology, Citizenship and Human Rights" in the Master of International Studies.