Matthew Tristan da Silva is currently a Sociology PhD candidate in the OpenSoc program at ICS-UL. After completing his Master’s degree in Arts, Media and Culture at the University of Groningen (NL), he went on to find a place in the documentary industry, where he continues to work as a researcher, producer, and editor on short and long form documentaries on current affairs, social issues and emerging technologies for the CBC (Canada), CNA (Singapore) and independently. His academic research takes a closer look at the personal dynamics of contemporary migrations in urban atmospheres, and is interested in locating migrant livelihoods and feelings of belonging through an embodied approach.
PhD Candidate: Sociology, Migrations
Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon (UL)
Lisbon Stories: Tracing Transnational Memory, Affective Modalities & Sensory Acclimation for recently settled migrants in Lisboa, Portugal explores the transnational movements and cosmopolitan livelihoods of recent migrants to Lisboa, Portugal, tracing their collective memory, sensory reflexivity, and affective modes to uncover the embodied threads that migrants weave in the process of acclimating to the lifeworld of a new city. Moving beyond methodological nationalism and binary reductionism, the study explores notions of belonging, narratives of mobility and transnational positionalities within existing social structures. Utilizing a multi-sited approach that embeds deep micro-level analysis of embodiment and the senses within a meso and macro level framework, the format of the study offers an encompassing understanding of the complexities of contemporary human movement. Compiled through an extensive ethnography, the study will also engage with audiovisual documentary methods to carry out interviews, recreate sensory experiences and map affective atmospheres, offering mixed media techniques that fill the void in comprehensively describing memory, the senses and affective experience through words alone.
Keywords: senses, affectivity, atmosphere, mobility, multimodal ethnography