[Brazil@Harvard] April events & updated calendar

Dear friends and colleagues: Please find below a listing of Brazil-related events taking place at DRCLAS and elsewhere at Harvard during the month of April. The highlight of this week is a "Conversation on U.S.-Brazil Relations" seminar which will take place over lunch this Thursday, April 7, between renowned journalist/author Elio Gaspari and Lincoln Gordon, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil during the coup of 1964. This promises to be a historic debate. (See full details below). Also, as an attachment, please find appended the updated full calendar of the "Brazil Semester at Harvard (Spring 2005)" activities. Grande abraço, Tomás Amorim Brazilian Studies Program Coordinator & Research Associate David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), Harvard University http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu/brazil -------------------- APRIL EVENTS ON BRAZIL April 6: “Religious Education in Schools and State laicité: The Role of Public Finances in the Question for National Identity in Brazil” This presentation is part of a long range work-in-progress on “Discrimination, Prejudice, Stigma: Religious and Ethnic Minorities, Culture and Education,” conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) since the early 1990s. It aims to reflect on the relation between state and religion in Brazil, with special emphasis on publicly-financed school systems, including higher education, as well as an analysis of the sources and repercussions on the question for national identity. ROSELI FISCHMANN, Visiting Scholar of Political Psychology, Department of Psychology, Harvard University; Professor of Graduate Studies, Department of Educational Administration and Economics of Education, University of São Paulo (USP). Fischmann was a member of the State Commission on Religious Teaching in Public Schools in 1995 and 1996. Wednesday, April 6 (12:30-2:00pm) Science Center, Room 252 Sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Project on Religion, Political Economy and Society (PRPES). -------------------- April 7: Brazilian Historical & Contemporary Challenges: Reflections from Harvard “A Conversation on U.S.-Brazil Relations” LINCOLN GORDON, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil from 1961 to 1966 and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs from 1966 to 1967. Prior to that he helped develop and negotiate President Kennedy's proposal for a generous program of economic and technical assistance under the rubric “Alliance for Progress.” Previously he had numerous years of government service in the UN Atomic Energy Commission, the Marshall Plan, and NATO. Harvard Class of 1933 and a former Harvard professor at the Business School, Ambassador Gordon is currently a guest scholar at Brookings Institution. He is the author of Brazil’s Second Chance, En Route toward the First World and is now working on a book of memoirs. ELIO GASPARI, Lemann Visiting Scholar at DRCLAS for Spring Term 2005. Gaspari is one of today’s most influential Brazilian columnists, writing for Folha de São Paulo, O Globo and ten other newspapers. Since the publication of his first volume on Brazil’s military regime, A Ditadura Envergonhada, he has been widely recognized as one of Brazil’s leading historians and journalists. He has published four volumes on the history of Brazil’s dictatorial military regime including A Ditadura Escancarada, A Ditadura Derrotada, and A Ditadura Encurralada. During his stay at Harvard, Gaspari is working on the fifth volume of this series, A Ditadura Desmontada, which covers the period of 1978-1979. Thursday, April 7 (12:00-2:00pm) DRCLAS – Conference Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge Brazilian lunch served at noon; presentation starts at 12:30pm. -------------------- April 8: Bate-papo @ DRCLAS, a roundtable discussion in Portuguese where faculty, students, and all other members of the Harvard Community can practice their Portuguese language skills and discuss Luso-Brazilian cultures. Brazilian music, food, poetry, and much more. Friday, April 8 (4:00-6:00pm) DRCLAS – Seminar Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge -------------------- April 13: Brazilian Historical & Contemporary Challenges: Reflections from Harvard “A Conversation on Gender & Sexuality in Brazil” JAMES GREEN, Associate Professor of History at Brown University. He is a former president of the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) and is currently chair of BRASA’s Committee on the Future of Brazilian Studies in the United States. Green is the author of Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil, and he is currently finishing the manuscript “We Cannot Remain Silent”: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States, 1964-85. MALA HTUN, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the New School for Social Research. She is the author of Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family Under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies. Htun’s current work focuses on the initiatives and responses that states take with regard to gender, race, and ethnicity. She is finishing the manuscript Sex, Race, and Representation: Getting Women, Blacks, and Indians into Political Power in Latin America. Htun received a PhD in political science from Harvard. Wednesday, April 13 (12:00-2:00pm) DRCLAS – Conference Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge Brazilian lunch served at noon; presentation starts at 12:30pm. -------------------- April 14: Brazilian Graduate Studies Workshop A forum for doctoral or masters students engaged in substantive research on Brazil-related topics to circulate and discuss works-in-progress as well as to meet with experts on Brazil. Presentations by PAMELA J. SURKAN, Doctoral Candidate, Harvard School of Public Health, and CAROL DESHANO DA SILVA, Candidate, Ed.D. in International Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Thursday, April 14 (5:00-7:00pm) DRCLAS – Conference Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge -------------------- April 14: “A Conversation on Brazilian Art” JANE DE ALMEIDA, Visiting Fellow, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. Almeida’s post-doctoral research focuses on the artist Arthur Bispo do Rosario, who for fifty years lived in a psychiatric asylum in Rio de Janeiro. She has taught at the Catholic University of São Paulo, Mackenzie University, FAAP, and Boston College. Almeida has curated exhibitions at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil and is the author of Metacinemas; Ordering and Vertigo; Image’s Strategie; Aesthesis: Aesthetics and Cinema; and Witty Found: Witz and Psychoanalysis in José Simão’s Writings. GUY BRETT, Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar for Spring Term 2005. Internationally recognized as one of the most influential writers and thinkers on contemporary art, Brett occupies a distinctive position as an independent curator and critical historian of the visual arts. During his stay at Harvard, he will develop a project investigating the notion of the “void” in the work of Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Mira Schendel and other Brazilian and Latin American artists. His research will also explore the role played by the box-format and book-format in Brazilian avant-garde art. ELIO GASPARI, Lemann Visiting Scholar at DRCLAS for Spring Term 2005. Gaspari is one of today’s most influential Brazilian columnists, writing for Folha de São Paulo, O Globo and ten other newspapers. Since the publication of his first volume on Brazil’s military regime, A Ditadura Envergonhada, he has been widely recognized as one of Brazil’s leading historians and journalists. He has published four volumes on the history of Brazil’s dictatorial military regime including A Ditadura Escancarada, A Ditadura Derrotada, and A Ditadura Encurralada. During his stay at Harvard, Gaspari is working on the fifth volume of this series, A Ditadura Desmontada, which covers the period of 1978-1979. NICOLAU SEVCENKO, Visiting Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, Spring 2005. Sevcenko is currently teaching the courses “Popular Tradition as the Muse of Modern Brazilian Culture” and “Literature and the Plea for Compassionate Modernization in 20th-century Brazil.” He is on the faculty of the University of São Paulo (USP) and has published widely on Brazilian history, literature, and culture, including: Pindorama Revisitada: Cultura e Sociedade em Tempos de Virada; Orfeu Extático na Metrópole: São Paulo,Sociedade e Cultura nos Frementes Anos 20; and Literatura como Missão: Tensões Sociais e Criação Cultural na Primeira República. Moderator CECILE FROMONT, Doctoral Candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, working on colonial Afro-Brazilian art in Bahia. Thursday, April 14 (7:00-8:30pm) DRCLAS – Conference Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge Co-sponsored with DRCLAS’s Art Forum. -------------------- BRAZIL WEEK (April 18-22): Brazilian Women’s Movements Recent scholarship has argued that Brazil has Latin America’s largest, most vibrant and most diverse feminist movement, having pioneered a number of policy changes advancing women’s rights. The Third Annual Brazil Week at Harvard will bring together scholars, leaders, members of the local community, and students to examine these critical issues and the multiple ways in which Brazilian women have organized, including a focus on the role of women’s organizations in the new immigrant communities. Brazil Week Founder & Chair: CLÉMENCE JOUËT-PASTRÉ, Senior Preceptor in Portuguese, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, Harvard University. April 18 (Official Brazil Week Opening): “Brazilian Women in Popular Music” Music by VALDISA MOURA & BAND Vocals: Valdisa Moura, bass: Tal Shalom-Kobi, guitar: Deborah Rocha, flute: Tina Jacas, percussion: Steve Sanford & Marcos Santos. Lecture by DÁRIO BORIM, JR. Associate Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth. Author of Perplexidades: Raça, Sexo e Outras Questões Sociopolíticas no Discurso Cultural Brasileiro and Borders and Selves: Contemporary Autobiography of Brazil and the Americas. Borim is host and producer of Brazilliance, a weekly live radio program dedicated to the music of Brazil and other lusophone countries. Monday, April 18 (6:00-8:00pm) Yenching Auditorium, 2 Divinity Avenue (Yenching Library), Cambridge -------------------- April 20: “Brazilian Women’s Movements: A Historical Perspective” A historical overview of women’s movements in Brazil and an analysis of the movement’s triumphs and challenges in the twentieth century, focusing particularly on education and society. Unlike the U.S. model, Brazilian education was marked by a strong Jesuit presence and hundreds of years of influence from the Catholic Church. The Constitution of 1891, which established Brazil as a secular, federal and democratic state, led to changes in the educational system which had profound repercussions for the education of women. ROSELI FISCHMANN, Visiting Scholar of Political Psychology, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, and Professor of Graduate Studies, Department of Educational Administration and Economics of Education, University of São Paulo (USP); Author of numerous books and articles, Fischmann is a regular contributor to the Brazilian newspaper Correio Braziliense. She is a former member of the São Paulo State Council for Women’s Affairs (1999-2002). Wednesday, April 20 (12:00-2:00pm) DRCLAS – Conference Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge Brazilian lunch served at noon; presentation starts at 12:30pm. -------------------- April 21: “Boston’s Brazilian Women’s Group” 10th Anniversary Celebration & Book Launch What is it like to be a Brazilian, a woman, and an immigrant? How does it change one’s life? These are some of the questions that Heloisa Galvão’s book, As Viajantes do Século Vinte: Uma História Oral de Mulheres Brasileiras na Área de Boston, tries to answer. The project is an oral history of the saga of Brazilian women immigrants narrated in their own voice, featuring interviews with eleven Brazilian women who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. They are young and old, married, mothers, grandmothers, workers from all areas, and homemakers. They speak for themselves on why they decided to come, what happened when they came, and how it changed their lives. HELOISA MARIA GALVÃO, co-founder, Brazilian Women’s Group, and bilingual community field coordinator, Boston Public Schools. GRUPO MULHER BRASILEIRA, founded in 1995 by a group of Brazilian immigrant women in Boston, this organization developed strong roots by participating actively in the organization and growth of the local Brazilian community. Thursday, April 21 6:00-7:30pm: Presentation (Conference Room – 2nd floor) 7:30-8:30pm: Reception & book launch (Resource Room – ground floor) DRCLAS – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge -------------------- April 22: BRAZILIAN JOURNEYS: The Documentaries of Dorrit Harazim A series of films depicting different touching facets of Brazilian life. Third & Final Documentaries: 4:30pm: “Travessia do Escuro” (Journey through Darkness), 2002, 28 min. Chronicles the struggles and triumphs of the illiterate in Brazil. The film tells the story of three elderly Brazilians, all of whom have led productive lives and retired yet have now returned to school to learn how to read and write, hoping to fulfill the gap illiteracy has carved in their lives. 5:30pm: “Passageiros” (Passengers), 2000, 57 min. At the age of 17, Marcelo left the ranch and mine where he worked with his father in Piauí and made his way to São Paulo in search of employment. The film accompanies Marcelo in a three-day bus journey as he returns home for the first time. Through the personal stories of Marcelo and the other passengers who are part of this constant migration movement within Brazil, the film depicts the aspirations and obstacles of the contemporary migrant. Discussion with the filmmaker to follow the screening. Documentary in Portuguese with English subtitles. Friday, April 22 (4:30-7:00pm) Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall (next to Widener Library) -------------------- April 25: “Brazilian Mothers’ Feeding Practices and Child Overweight” A presentation on an on-going research project examining Brazilian mother’s feeding practices, perceptions of infant weight status, and the factors that may influence a child’s dietary intake and the development of overweight in pre-school years. ANA CRISTINA LINDSAY, DDS, MPH, DrPH, Research Scientist, Public Health Nutrition, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health KATARINA MUCHA, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Harvard University. Monday, April 25 (12:00-2:00pm) DRCLAS – Conference Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge Brazilian lunch served at noon; the presentation starts at 12:30pm. -------------------- April 29: Bate-papo @ DRCLAS, a roundtable discussion in Portuguese where faculty, students, and all other members of the Harvard Community can practice their Portuguese language skills and discuss Luso-Brazilian cultures. Brazilian music, food, poetry, and much more. Friday, April 29 (4:00-6:00pm) DRCLAS – Seminar Room (2nd floor) – 61 Kirkland St., Cambridge -------------------- For events to be held in May, please see appended PDF file with full calendar of DRCLAS's "Brazil Semester at Harvard."