Bárbara Cruz is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program of Social Anthropology (PPGAS) of the National Museum at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and is currently a member of the Laboratory of Symmetrical Anthropology (NAnSi). She was a Fulbright Fellow, spending a year as a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is developing the project "Black Spiritualities and the Politics of Race and Mixture in the Afro-Brazilian Religion Terecô", exploring connections of this religion with Brazilian politics of race and nationality.