Waldisa Rússio: museology and politics in 1980

ABSTRACT This article proposes to use São Paulo museologist Waldisa Rússio’s life trajectory to verify which topics mobilized Brazilian agents the most in the museological context during the 1980s. In this regard, it uses some of the institutions of that time, prioritizing those whose actions showed some kind of national repercussion. Therefore, it should be noted with which symbolic capitals Waldisa entered the field in pursuance of progressively reaching the condition of authority to be heard and considered. The article highlights how the regulatory process of museum studies was impacted by different positions, especially about which knowledge basis would empower such labor. Further about the production of this knowledge, the theoretical elaboration in museology is thought of as a step that affects the development of the area. Waldisa Rússio’s guiding role stands out then by combining the conceptual and political dimensions of museums. In the process the article makes the case for Rússio’s experience accumulated in the 1980s and her interlocution with São Paulo heritage. Bound up with this are the contexts she engaged with to elaborate public policies in museology. Despite the debate regarding the political magnitude of preservation in the 1980s, on account of the country’s own redemocratization process, museology was shown to have practically missed such discussion.