Hello! My name is Débora M Nunes (she/her), but you can call me Deb (:
I'm passionate about economics, traveling, dancing, soccer (vamos Grêmio!), and union organizing. I live in the United States with my partner Ralf and occupy my days with teaching, researching, and cooking for my chosen family here in Colorado. Whenever I can, I go back to Brazil to spend time with my brother and my mother (my best friends <3), my godson, my goddaughter, and lots of friends and family who I miss everyday. Welcome to my website!
I'm a Brazilian economist living in Fort Collins, CO - USA. I moved here in 2018 to start my PhD in Economics at Colorado State University, seeking to study under Dr. Elissa Braunstein. I've been passionately researching feminist economics since I was an undergraduate at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, Brazil) - my undergraduate thesis was about disparities by gender in the Brazilian labor market, and my Master's Dissertation discussed the history of Marxist-feminist economic thought; both advised by Dr. Marcelo Milan.
After finishing my Master's in Brazil, the feeling that academia was not the right place for an artistic, creative human-being like myself was too overwhelming. Professors advised me to pursue a different line of research; they believed I was a good student, but feminist economics was a niche, unimportant field. In 2016, I paused my academic career, opened my own cultural production company (Bichano Produções Culturais) and became a professional dancer. I've been dancing classical ballet since I was 4 years-old, and love dancing jazz, contemporary, performance, and other art manifestations whenever I get the opportunity! Despite having a successful career as a producer, including backstage assistance to bands like Black Sabbath, Maroon 5, and The Backstreet Boys in my résumé, I felt constantly bothered by the waste and carbon emissions of the entertainment industry. Together with the high-stress environment and the exhausting working hours, I started to feel that the costs outweighed the benefits.
Having the opportunity to work as a dancer and as a producer of projects that I truly believed in, engaged with transformative cultural práxis, was an incredible privilege, but I missed the classroom too much. My former advisor and personal friend Dr. Marcelo Milan always campaigned for me to come back to economics, so he translated a term paper that I wrote for his class, submitted it to a conference in New York, and a few months later I was in a fully funded flight to the United States to present my work. In New York, I had the opportunity to meet in person a lot of economists I've only read about. Everything almost felt like a dream. Dr. Elissa Braunstein - my main reference in feminist macroeconomics - shared very encouraging comments about my paper, and talked to me about the PhD program at CSU; I was immediately hooked. After a challenging application process, I started my PhD at Colorado State and became a Teaching Assistant in the Economics Department.
During my time here, I was an active voice representing students within our department and our university, and started a union of graduate workers. At the beginning there were 7 of us; now, we are the United Campus Workers of CSU and are unionizing everyone, from undergraduate workers to non-tenure track faculty. I also had the opportunity to teach 13 amazing classes as the main instructor (check out the teaching section on the menu above) and advance my research with rigor and enthusiasm (take a look at the publications section).
This year I'm in the job market, and I'm excited about the opportunities that await for me and my family around the corner! I will miss life in Fort Collins a whole bunch, but I leave knowing that a part of my heart stays here, and I will always have a place to call home on this side of the Equator line.
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