Feb 27 2014
The Brazilian Studies Reading Group welcomed various scholars this past fall to share their research with students and faculty. During Brazil Week, CLAS co-sponsored a discussion with Bianca Freire-Medeiros (Sociology, Center for Research and Documentation on Brazilian Contemporary History [CPDOC] at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, Rio) based on a chapter entitled “Tourism in ‘the largest favela in Latin America’” from her new book, Touring Poverty (Routledge, 2012). In October, Mario Ramiro (Visual Arts, University of São Paulo, Brazil) presented a history of sound urban intervention and discussed his artistic involvement in the CLAS co-sponsored Vanderbilt/USP collaboration, “Boom Box Bikes.” Additional talks were also given by Vera Lucia da Silva (Ph.D. candidate, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) and Courtney Campbell (Ph.D. candidate, History).
The Brazilian Studies Reading Group is a seminar led by graduate students and sponsored by the Robert Penn Warren Center, which provides a forum for the discussion of contemporary Brazilian topics. Each semester, the group facilitates interdisciplinary dialogues with pre-circulated readings, discusses works-in-progress by graduate students and faculty, and invites recognized scholars to present new work. Seminar coordinators are Ashley Larson (Latin American Studies), Max Pendergraph (History), and Guilherme Russo (Political Science).