Introduction: Doctoral Researcher Leticia De Mello

Leticia De Mello is a doctoral researcher at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, as a member of the Network Humanitarian Research (NHF) in Germany, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

In her PhD project, Humanitarian Imaginaries: The Constitution of Humanitarian Crises in Latin America, she examines how humanitarian crises, often defined by urgency, scale, and human impact, yet also shaped by processes of interpretation, representation, and political negotiation, are discursively and visually constructed by actors in the Global South.

Building on this, her research considers how power, identity, and historical structures shape humanitarian discourses and practices, paying particular attention to the influence of religion and colonial legacies on understandings of crisis, care, solidarity, and intervention in Latin America. By tracing these dynamics, the project explores how humanitarian imaginaries are formed and how they, in turn, shape humanitarian action in the region.

Leticia holds a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg - Germany as a DAAD Helmut-Schmidt Programme scholar, and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from PUC Minas - Brazil.