The Domestic Space, Body and Materialities Research Group (GEMA), coordinated by Professor Vânia Carneiro de Carvalho in the Paulista Museum of the University of São Paulo (Ipiranga Museum), aims to deepen theoretical-methodological discussions on the relationship between domestic space, bodies and artifacts and the construction and transformations of Brazilian society in the 19th and 20th centuries. Based on the perspective that materialities have agency in the social world, the group seeks to understand the biography of decoration, clothing and kitchen objects, in their interactions with gender issues and everyday practices.
Between 2018 and 2024, a subgroup of GEMA specialized in the history of kitchens and their objects through the project “Food Processing in the Domestic Space, São Paulo, 1860-1960,” which was part of the Curatorial Cycle Thematic Project (FAPESP no. 2017/07366-1). With a team that included up to 15 researchers, extensive work was carried out based on the culinary objects collection of the Paulista Museum at the University of São Paulo (better known for its historic building, the Ipiranga Museum) and a wide range of historical sources, such as advertisements, cookbooks, household manuals, inventories, and periodicals. The aim was to study kitchen equipment and utensils in their contexts of use, appropriation, replacement, and coexistence with other objects, for the production of the book Kitchen Objects – Biographies (1860-1960), formerly titled Illustrated Historical Repertoire of Kitchen Equipment and Tools, which is expected to be published in 2025.
- Read more about the book Kitchen Objects – Biographies (1860-1960)
- GEMA and the production of “Work and Happiness“, an exhibition room in the Paulista Museum (Museu do Ipiranga)
- Learn about our research team and our academic projects