Team

Sofia Silveira
Coordinator

My story is not uncommon: nerdy, fantasy-loving, the kid turned writer. I am a sociologist and researcher excited to put forward my research skills to create engaging, informative, content.

In 2017, I finished my undergraduate studies with a BSc in Social Sciences, 2-year research about representations of loneliness on film, a few gigs, a media management certificate and an internship at the coolest audiovisual production company in all of my native Brazil. I was also very confused: was it possible to pursue a research-driven career in media?

Trying to find an answer, I moved to the United States for a Masters of Arts in Media Studies at The New School, in New York City.

Since then, I have worked for think tanks and nonprofits, focusing on using my research and communication skills to advocate for immigrant rights and the combat against human trafficking and antidemocratic movements.

I finished my masters at the end of 2019 with a thesis on Youtube and the symbolic place of the United States in Brazilian neoconservatism, and am a researcher at Isabela Kalil’s Center for Urban Ethnography (NEU). I’m also currently working on my debut novel, Where Sunken Ships Go.

At Sailboat Writing, we develop high-impact media projects driven by strong research, combining the ability to create content with the purpose of creating fulfilling, informative, experiences for those who engage with it.

I live with my books in NYC.

Weslei Pinheiro
Writer & Researcher

- Holds a social sciences MA from the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) and a social sciences Bsc from the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo (FESPSP)

- Is currently pursuing a Bsc in philosophy at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)

- Researcher at the Center for Urban Ethnography (NEU) at FESPSP

- Sociology and philosophy professor in middle and high schools

I conduct bibliographical and thematic research for project development, elaborating research questionnaires and designing methodologies as well as transcribing interviews.

I started my career studying the general perception of art in public spaces, elaborating a social and anthropological study about the fruition of art works in São Paulo’s subway. Still in love with cultural subjects, I decided to better understand the relationship between sociology and literature, both as ways of interpreting the world.

More recently, I have approached more political themes, trying to comprehend the subject of tolerance, politics in the public sphere - through occupations and protest -  as well as how speeches and narratives in different mediums form the ways in which we understand the world.
In my free time, I am a double agent, dividing myself in between any competition I am able to understand, spending my nights watching badminton (Brazilians would call it peteca) and American football. Meanwhile, my other half is devoted to mass culture, devouring movies and tv shows.

Good virgo that I am, with an exaggerated presence of the sign in my birth chart, I pressure myself a lot and try to adapt to future plans, which currently are: establishing a research agenda that can balance the interests of academia and common sense, above all trying to better understand the importance of media and the entertainment sphere to the formation of world views.”

Rafael Rodrigues da Costa
Content producer & Business Consultant

I hold a BsC by the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo (FESPSP) and an MA in Sociology at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), currently holding a position as visiting researcher at the Center for Systemic Studies at Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA).

In my career as a sociologist, I realized academia produced a type of knowledge very useful to answer an array of questions that mattered to companies, governments and associations.

Knowing how people and corporations behave in specific social groups, observing how this behavior can interfere in actions and analysing how this universe can transform the world in which we live in are information that us, as sociologists, deal with on a daily basis.

The great challenge, however, is that this knowledge is not always available to decision-makers, which makes valuable information to be restricted to the walls of academia.

I work as a consultant at Sailboat Writing because I believe scientific knowledge can help administrators and influencers to organize their businesses in intelligent ways. With research techniques and research studies, we use social sciences not only as an instrument to understand reality, but also as a way to associate the best academia can offer with the dissemination of practical knowledge.

Wiverson Azarias
Writer & Researcher

Wiverson Azarias
Writer & Researcher

I hold a Bsc in social sciences by the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo (FESPSP), currently pursuing my masters in cultural studies at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and I am a researcher in the Center for Urban Ethnography at FESPSP.

I work at Sailboat Writing conducting bibliographical research for project development, creating interview questions and transcribing interviews.

My favorite research objects are in the most eccentric realm of political discourse, like conspiracy theories, fake news, and online debates held in social media. Away from academia, I spend my time researching pop culture, diving into comic books and trashy horror films as well as incessantly rewatching Ghostbusters.

In the next few years, I intend to develop audiovisual productions that contemplate the dissemination of scientific knowledge, combining cinema and social sciences.

Igraine Kramer
Writer, Translator & Researcher

- BsC in Social Sciences (Expected graduation: February 2021)

Throughout the 4 years of my Social Sciences BsC, the everyday, so-called “ordinary”, life – a topic that already interested me – became an object of fascination. In the past two years, I’ve encountered the urban sociology field, more specifically the concept of “right to the city”.

The question that most echoes through my mind is: how capitalist molds, which cities are based on, affect our lives? To rethink cities and their structures means analysing the way we live, produce and consume. What kind of city do we want? What kind of city do we want to build?

Urban sociology – and urban anthropology, two fields that dance in a great ballet – enabled me to better understand my concerns, in addition to providing tools for praxis, a practical-critical approach to human activity.

This fascination with day-to-day life and cities is also reflected in my hobbies especially, my favorite, analogue photography. Through a “point and shoot” style, I attempt to portray everyday life in an organic fashion. 

Currently, I am researching the right to the city, supporting my analysis on the requalification project and reform of the Anhangabaú valley in downtown São Paulo.