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 École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS-Paris) and by the ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, with the thesis “A world on the move. Operative horizons among Angolan refugees and returnees (Meheba 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 and refuge (such as refugee camps, resettlement schemes, gated communities and ecovillages), 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-ULisboa, being involved in a comparative study between the Meheba refugee camp and the resettlement schemes resulting from the ruby extraction areas on Montepuez, 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). In parallel, he has been working in the project Yoon/Path (http://yoon-film.com) combining scholarly research with the production a documentary film. Yoon addresses the trade of outdated cars, the life strategies of routiers and the grey areas that are traversed in an activity that takes place between Portugal and Senegal.
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.
Most of his works are gathered and available in http://pedrofneto.com 
 

Keywords: refuge, borders, violence, mobility, spaces of exception, refugee camps, forced displacement.