Acknowledgements

This book has been a collaborative endeavour across borders between the UK and Brazil since 2015. The research started at Queen Mary University of London between Cathy McIlwaine and Paul Heritage across the Departments of Geography and English and Drama and People’s Palace Projects (PPP). Eliana Sousa Silva from Redes da Maré and Miriam Krenzinger from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) were part of this research from the outset. Yara Evans worked as the researcher for the first stage of the project in the Department of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, and Moniza Rizzini Ansari for the second stage in the Department of Geography at King’s College London, where Cathy moved in 2017. In London, the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) has been a long-term partner in the work. We also partnered with the CASA Latin American Theatre Festival, Footprint Productions, Migrants in Action (MinA) and the Latin America Bureau (LAB). At King’s, Cathy also worked with the Visual and Embodied Methodologies (VEM) network. In Rio de Janeiro, we partnered with Casa das Mulheres da Maré (part of Redes da Maré) on several projects. They provided the foundation for our work in Maré from 2019, including with the Museu da Pessoa.

While these are the main partner organisations, there are many people to thank within and beyond these universities and organisations.

In London, we would like to thank Andrew Loveland, Kavita Datta and Al James in the Department of Geography at Queen Mary, and Rosie Hunter, Thiago Jesus, Sam Maloney, Raquel Roldanus-Dias and, above all, Renata Peppl from PPP. Renata has been the stalwart, innovative, wonderful project manager in the majority of the projects. None of the research would have been possible without her. At King’s, we would like to thank Rosa dos Ventos Lopes Heimer who ran the body-territory mapping, Lyanne Wylde, Ana Betianu, David Newsome, Katharine Silk, Jelke Boesten and Rachel Kerr. At the LAWRS, we are grateful to Carolina Gottardo, Lucila Granada, Gisela Valle, Elizabeth Jiménez-Yañez and Illary Valenzuela-Oblitas, as well as Aline Littlejohn who conducted many of the interviews in the first stage. At the CASA Latin American Theatre Festival, we are grateful to Daniel Goldman and Cordelia Grierson. Our work with MinA was possible thanks to Carolina Cal, Renata Peppl, Isabela Miranda Gomes, Nina Franco, Alba Cabral, Louise Carpenedo, Isadora Chamis, Beatriz Grasso, Paulica Santos and the research participants: Adriana Pereira, Aline Santos, Annaís Berlim, Eliete Reis, Karina Sgarbi, Letícia Gonçalves, Luciana Duailibe, Marcia Alves, Michelle Nicoletti, Simone Amorim, Simone Souza, Taline Schubach, Tathiane Mattos and Vera Jus. We would also like to thank Niall Sreenan. At the LAB, we are grateful to Louise Morris, Marilyn Thomson and Rebecca Wilson together with the rest of the Women Resisting Violence Collective, including Jelke Boesten, Patricia Muñoz Cabrera and Andrea Espinoza (see Women Resisting Violence Collective, 2022a for other collaborators), and Mike Gatehouse.

In Rio de Janeiro, at the Federal University, we are grateful to Rosana Morgado, Joana Garcia and especially Noelle Resende, whose analysis has been key to the second stages of the research. At Redes da Maré, we would like to thank Gisele Ribeiro Martins, Isabela Souza da Silva, Bianca Polotto Cambiaghi, Dalcio Marinho Gonçalves, Everton Pereira da Silva, Alessandra Pinheiro, Andreza Silveira Jorge, Juliana Alves Sá, Kelly Silva and Tereza Silva. At Casa das Mulheres da Maré, Julia Leal was an amazing fieldwork manager together with Fernanda Vieira, Andreza Dionísio, Natalia Trindade, Maira Gabriel Anhorn, Joelma Sousa dos Santosand Shirley da Luz Villela. At the Museu da Pessoa, we would like to thank Karen Worcman, Sônia London, Paula Ribeiro, Marcia Trezza, Teresa Carvalho, Lucas de Lara, Renato Herzog, Flora Gurgel and Anna Bernardes. Thanks to the researchers at Casa das Mulheres who also contributed to this part of the work: Andreza Dionísio Pereira, Elivanda Canuto De Sousa, Fernanda Viana Araújo, Fernanda Vieira Alves de Andrade, Isabel Cristina Lopes Barbosa, Jéssica Santana Hipolito, Patricia Ramalho Gonçalves, Stefany Vital da Silva and Tábata Rodrigues Lugão. We are grateful to the artist participants: Rafaela Otaviano Feitosa, Lenice Viegas Silva, Jurema Onofre de Souza, Luana da Silva Bezerra, Juliana Oliveira Junqueira de Aguiar, Beatriz Virgínia Gomes Belmiro, Iraci Rosa da Lima, Priscila Monteiro de Andrade, Jaqueline Souza de Andrade and Roseni Lima de Oliveira. Thanks also to Jan Onoszko at PPP, Rio and to Luiz Eduardo Soares.

In terms of the creative outputs, we are extremely grateful to Bia Lessa who created SCAR, to the Women of the World (WOW) Foundation for hosting the exhibition in London and to Chrissie Tiller for her evaluation. Thanks to Mila de Choch for the observational drawings. Huge thanks to Gaël Le Cornec for Efêmera, Ana and Believe as well as to Rosie Macpherson and Angie Peñas.

We would like to acknowledge André Camara and Luciana Whitaker Aikins for the photography for SCAR and Efêmera, Maikon Saldanha who provided the base map of Maré and Ed Oliver and Steven Bernard for their maps of Maré and Brazilians in London. Thanks to Alba Murcia, Olivia West Alvarez, Ana Spinelli, Max Drabwell McIlwaine, Alice Wright, Seona Kehoe and Esther Montesinos for research assistance in various forms.

We are very grateful for Caroline Moser’s support as an advisor on both projects and to Sarah Bradshaw and Sophie Harman for help throughout. Rebecca Wilson worked as an editor on the book, without whom the book would not have been published. We would also like to thank Michael Keith and Susan Parnell as the editors of the Urban Transformations book series, together with Tom Dark, Laura Swift and Shannon Kneis from Manchester University Press, who have provided helpful guidance.

We are grateful to the following funders for the grants that have financed the research in this book: ESRC-Newton Fund ‘Healthy, secure and gender just cities: Transnational perspectives on VAWG in Rio de Janeiro and London’ (ES/N013247/1 and ES/N013247/2; British Academy ‘Resisting violence, creating dignity: Negotiating VAWG through community history-making in Rio de Janeiro’ (HDV190030); UKRI/EPSRC ‘Tackling gendered violence transnationally: Exchanging knowledge and impact across Brazilian-British borders’ (EP/X527920/1); ESRC Impact Acceleration Account ‘Women resisting intersectional violence’; ESRC Impact Acceleration Account ‘We are still in the dark’; King’s College London Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy Faculty Research Fund ‘Enhancing impact of “We are still in the dark”’; King’s Undergraduate Research Fund; King’s Department of Geography Impact Fund (DIF); King’s Together Fund (through VEM); Lloyds Foundation and LAWRS ‘Migrant Women Step Up’.

Ethical approvals were obtained from the Queen Mary Ethics Research Committee (QMERC2016.33) and the King’s College London Research Ethics Committee (HR-19/20–18,918; HR/DP-20/21–25282 and HR/DP-22/23–34036).

Cathy would like to thank Michael Keith and Max and Alex Drabwell McIlwaine for their support throughout the research and writing of the book.

Most of all, we extend our gratitude to the women of Maré and London who participated in this research.