In the sixth episode of imPACT: Diálogos, anthropologist David Simbsler draws on his fieldwork with landless movement (MST) evangelical Christians in the run up to the 2018 presidential elections to challenge easy or straightforward associations between religious and political affiliations, showing instead the complex and multi-faceted nature of social relations in rural Pernambuco.

David Simbsler holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Strasbourg and works as a high school teacher in France. He is currently a PhD candidate in social anthropology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), in Paris. He has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in rural Pernambuco, where he researched religion and politics among MST activists.

imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi.

Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña

Cover image: Yul Koh

Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter

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