Portugues

geopolítica, fronteiras e a arte de decifrar o espaço geográfico

Abstract

This article presents a reconstruction of the spatial and intellectual trajectory of geographer Lia Osório Machado, analyzing the relationship between her education, her professional career, her research themes, and the theoretical-methodological framework she developed within Geography. The text seeks to demonstrate how her life experience was important in the formulation of her geographical ideas and concepts, exploring her childhood between Brazil and the United States; her educations at the University of Brazil and fieldwork in the Midwest and the Amazon, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Barcelona; her investigations into the geographic networks of illicit drug trafficking and the financial system; and her studies on border strips.The article argues that Lia Osório Machado's work is characterized by the systematic integration of empirical observation, theoretical foundations, and geopolitical analysis. The objective is to show how its spatial trajectory was not just a backdrop, but a constitutive element of a geographic perspective that redefined approaches to Brazilian territory, notably the Amazon and border regions, and influenced both the academic field and the State's territorial planning.