Ana Carolina Brugnera
Scien (Built environment and design; Environmental sciences; Human society; Indigenous studies; Language, communication and culture)
Minas Gerais, Brazil
Ana Carolina is an environmentalist who has led research projects focused on analysing the transformation of territories, studying their occupation scenarios and documenting both physical and cultural aspects, as well as tangible and intangible heritage. Her work explores landscapes shaped by human culture through long-term processes.
Since 2014, she has been the scientific director of the Pequi do Cerrado Institute, an NGO dedicated to promoting sustainable territorial development in cultural landscapes, especially in areas inhabited by traditional communities in the Cerrado biome. Through this Institute, she led as Principal Investigator the Earth Under Transformation project, a project approved by the British Museum's Endangered Material Knowledge Programme.
In 2021, Ana joined the team that developed the proposal for the Living Museum of Traditional Peoples of Minas Gerais, Brazil, selected by the Cultural Heritage Conservation Programme of the National Development Bank. This project is currently being developed in collaboration with the Centre for Alternative Agriculture of Northern Minas Gerais. It was also recently selected to be part of the core group for the Climate Academy 2021 Programme: Nature-based Solutions and Urban Vulnerability", a programme organised by three UN-affiliated organisations.
Since 2011, Ana has been an associate researcher at the think tank Documento Cultural Brazil, where she works on activities related to the management of cultural, historical and archaeological heritage.
In terms of her academic background, she graduated with distinction and honours from the Faculty of Architecture at Mackenzie University, Brazil, in 2021. She also completed a short GEST course at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She also holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Architecture and a Certificate III in Visual Arts & Contemporary Crafts from TAFE Queensland, Australia.