Helena Fietz
Assistant Professor
Faculty Advisor to the Geography and Anthropology Undergraduate Society
Education
PhD, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), 2020
MA, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), 2016
LLB, Pontif铆cia Universidade Cat贸lica do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), 2008
Research
Helena Fietz鈥� research examines how disability, care practices, and family expectations intersect with public policies and representations of disability in Brazil and the US, with particular attention to the roles of gender, race, class, and generation in this entanglement. Her broad research interests include medical anthropology, science and technology studies, critical disability studies, anthropology of care, health inequities, and applied anthropology.
Selected Publications
2023 Fietz, Helena. Waiting, Care and Disability: The productions of time in the trajectory of mothers of adults with intellectual disabilities. Cadernos Pagu, n.67 [publication in Portuguese]
2023 Williamson , K. Eliza, Engel, Cintia; Fietz, Helena. 鈥淒is/abled care: Caregivers, debility, and constrained spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil.鈥� Space and Culture, vol.26(3), pp.468-482. DOI:
2020 Fietz, Helena. Negotiating Care: Living Arrangements and Adults with Cognitive Disability in South Brazil. Aequitas Revue de d茅veloppement humain, changement social, handicap. Volume 26, n.2, f茅vrier: 37-47, Quebec, Canada. DOI:
2020 Fietz, Helena. The paradox of Autonomy and Care for Mothers of Adults with Disabilities in Brazil. Platypus, the CASTAC Blog, May 19, 2020. http://blog.castac.org/author/helenafietz/
2018 Fonseca, Claudia; Fietz, Helena. Collectives of Care in the Relations Surrounding People with 'Head Troubles': Family, Community and Gender in a Working-Class Neighborhood of Southern Brazil. Revista Sociologia e Antropologia. 08(01): 223-243, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2017 Aydos, Val茅ria; Fietz, Helena. When Citizenship Demands Care: The Inclusion of People with Autism in the Brazilian Labour Market. Disability Studies Quarterly. 36(4): 1-25.