IRE-UAB hosts Brazilian researcher Doiara Silva dos Santos to examine women of "Améfrica Ladina" in the Olympic Movement

Doiara Silva dos Santos's stay advances research into the memory and identity of women Olympic champions from Améfrica Ladina through an intelligent digital repository.

The Sports Research Institute (IRE-UAB) hosts Dr. Doiara Silva dos Santos for a postdoctoral research stay running from July to October 2026. Professor at the Department of Physical Education at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Brazil, and founder and director of the Laboratory of Olympic and Sociocultural Studies of Sport (LEOS), her academic focus lies in sports sociology and sports history, specializing in Olympic studies and media across Latin America.

The study carried out during her stay is titled Women of the Olympic Movement: Territory, Identity and Memory in “Améfrica Ladina”, which is part of a broader research initiative mapping women Olympic champions from this region. The framework of «Améfrica Ladina», developed by Brazilian scholar Lélia Gonzalez within Black feminist thought, provides a political and cultural perspective for understanding territory, identity, and historical ties across Latin American and Caribbean societies.

Methodologically, the initiative combines documentary research with the cataloguing and curation of institutional, historical, and media archives. The current stage concentrates on developing a prototype for an intelligent digital repository centered on María Caridad Colón Rueñes-Salazar, the Cuban javelin thrower who became the first woman from Améfrica Ladina to secure an Olympic gold medal.