About

My mother named me Douglas da Silva Ferreira in Petrópolis, in 1991. My students have called me Degê (pronounced deh-ZHEH, a common Brazilian nickname for Douglas) throughout my 12 years of teaching, so far.

Between the fall of the Soviet Union and the present day, I’ve played more video games and watched more anime than I probably should have. And although I didn’t grow up surrounded by books, I’ve managed to read quite a few. As a boy, I wanted to be a writer, but I still haven’t managed to become one, though I do write things from time to time. I’ve also been in psychoanalysis for 12 years, and I wander around Letra Freudiana, trying to become an analyst myself.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve accumulated a few degrees, not that it matters. But if you’re the kind of person who cares about such things, I have some papers in a folder stating that I hold a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from UFRJ, a master’s degree in History of Science and Technology from the same institution, a postgraduate specialization in Data Science from USP/ESALQ, and that I’m duly enrolled in a PhD program in Communication Studies at PUC-Rio. What I like most about all this, though, is having been a wandering academic, never staying anywhere for too long. You can see that for yourself on my Lattes CV.

I spent many years teaching at public high schools and also served as a school principal. These days, I work at the Instituto Democracia em Xeque and the Observatory of Algorithms and Information Systems with Social Impact (OASIS/UFRJ), and I’m also part of CondadoLab.

I’m deeply suspicious of hierarchies and have a very sincere desire to build other forms of social organization that are less dystopian, miserable, and brutal. Above all, I consider myself a libertarian socialist. Perhaps that’s the only title I’m genuinely proud to carry.