The election of Jair Bolsonaro to Brazil’s presidency surprised many observers and continued the global and regional resurgence of right-wing ascendancy. Since taking power, Bolsonaro’s government has allegedly threatened ideological purges of national scholarship recipients, promised to reverse the country’s now-consolidated quota policies, and downplay-if not eliminate entirely-land and cultural rights for descendants of Brazil’s fugitive slave and indigenous populations. Duke’s 2019 Global Brazil Conference reflects on how Brazil arrived at this point and what Brazil’s educational community-within Brazil and abroad-can move forward.
Readers can find a detailed schedule below or at Duke’s Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS) website:
Wednesday, February 27
6:30-8:00 P.M. Keynote Address: Black Women Fight Back
Dr. Djamila Ribeiro
Thursday, February 28
9:30-10:00 A.M. Coffee and Pastries
10:00-11:15 A.M. Screening of I, A Black Woman, Resist
Introduction by Dr. Sharrelle Barber (Drexel University, Dornsife School of Public Policy, Department of Epidemiology and Statistics)
11:15-11:30 A.M. Coffee Break
11:30 A.M.-Noon Threats to Health Services
Dr. João Ricardo N. Vissoci (Duke Medical School)
Dr. Marta Rovery de Souza (Federal Univeristy of Goiás)
12:00-1:15 P.M. Keynote Address: Crisis or Destiny?
Dr. Sílvio Luiz de Almeida (Universidade Mackenzie and Getúlio Vargas Foundation)
1:15-2:00 P.M. Lunch Break
2:00-2:45 P.M. Threats to Higher Education
Dr. Stephanie Reist (Postdoctoral Associate, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro)
Chloe Ricks (Duke Liberal Studies)
2:45-3:00 P.M. Coffee Break
3:00-3:45 P.M. From Hope to Hate: The Rise of Conservative Subjectivity in Brazil
Dr. Rosana Pinheiro Machado (Federal University of Santa Maria)
3:45-4:15 P.M. Threats to the Environment
Dr. Stuart Pimm (Doris Duke Professor of Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment)
4:15-5:00 P.M. Reading Brazil: Current Research from Duke
Ian Erickson-Kery, “Phantoms of Racial Democracy: Whiteness and Whitening in Cruz e Souza and Cadernos Negros” (Duke Romance Studies)
Gray F. Kidd, “An Arcades Project in the Tropics, Or Collecting the Margins of a Periphery: Recife, 1971-1986” (Duke History)
Marcelo Noah, “Sonic Dynamics of a Concrete Poem: Listening to Augusto de Campos” (Duke Romance Studies)
5:00-6:30 P.M. Keynote Address: Bolsonaro and Brazil’s Nostalgia for Death
Dr. John D. French (Duke History)
6:30-8:00 P.M. Dinner and Music by Caique Vidal
Sponsored by Office of Global Affairs and the Hanscom Endowment, Duke Brazil Initiative, and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
