Emilo or Emilio Willems (18 August 1905 – 19 November 1997) was a German sociologist and anthropologist based in Brazil and, later on, in the United States.
In 1941, at the invite of Fernando de Azevedo [pt], Willems was the first anthropology lecturer at the University of São Paulo, where his classes would become obligatory for students of the social sciences.
[4] In 1931, as the Nazi Party came into power, Willems emigrated to Brazil, moving to the city of Brusque in Santa Catarina state, where he lectured at a Catholic seminary.
He carried out various relevant research projects in rural Brazil, but the two main ones were conducted in Cunha (SP), which resulted in the monograph Uma vila brasileira — tradição e mudança (São Paulo: Difusão Européia do Livro, 1961) and at Ilha de Búzios, in the archipalego of Ilhabela, in the northern coast of São Paulo.
This research study resulted in the book Buzios Island: a Caiçara Community in Southern Brazil, published in Washington DC in 1952, in collaboration with Mussolini.