On October 10, 2023 the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies in partnership with SDSU's Department of Africana Studies and the Black Studies Project at UCSD hosted renown scholar and activist, Diva Moreira, for a conversation on reparations for slavery in Brazil and the U.S. Diva Moreira is one of the griots of the Black radical tradition in Brazil. She started her intellectual and political work fighting against the military dictatorship (1964-1985), organizing underground meetings for democracy as a member of the Communist Party. The military invaded her house, her husband was imprisoned for three years, and the government prohibited her from speaking publicly. Yet, she resisted political persecution until the democratization of the country. After the dictatorship, she dedicated herself to Black, feminist, and working-class movements.​

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Dr. Gustavo Melo Cerqueira is the Babalorixá of Ilê Axé Omi Ogun siwajú. Actor, director, and playwrite, Dr. Melo Cerqueira holds a Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies and an MA in Arts from the University of Texas at Austin (United States). He is the author of articles published in national and international books and journals in theater, performance studies, and religious studies. This lecture is hosted by Dr. Daniela Gomes’s class, AFRAS 351: Black Religions and Spirituality

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Dr. Agatha Oliveira is Assistant Professor at the Corporeal Arts Department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She holds a PhD in Performance as Public Practice from the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin and M.A. in Arts from the African and African Diaspora Studies Department. Her research works in the interface of dance, performance, African diaspora connections and Black feminisms. Dr. Oliveira is also a dance artist who has worked with different professional dance companies in Brazil and performed in several places across the world, including the Joyce Theatre in NY, the Center of Arts in Melbourne, Australia and Teatro Colón in Bogotá.

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Walter Omar Kohan is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). He received his doctorate from Iberoamericana University in Mexico City and did post-doctoral studies in Philosophy at the University of Paris. Dr. Kohan was a research fellow at EPCD, at the University of British Columbia, 2017-8. He has also been visiting professor at different universities in Italy, France, Argentina, Mexico and Chile. Since 2000 he is a Senior Research member of the National Council of Scientific and Technologic Development (CNPQ, Brazil) and of the Foundation of Support of Research of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, Brazil). Since 2003, he has been the Director of the Center of Studies in Philosophy and Childhood (State University of Rio de Janeiro, www.filoeduc.org). He also directs the Project “Philosophy at the Childhood of School Life” at CAPES, Brazilian Ministry of Education.

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Andréia Coutinho Louback is a journalist from PUC-Rio, with a masters in Ethnic Racial Relations from CEFET/RJ and a specialist in climate justice in Brazil. She is currently a fellow of the Fulbright Humphrey Fellowship (2021-22) program at UC Davis. She has worked as communication coordinator at the Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) and at the Instituto Alana Climatic and Socio-environmental Justice project. She then coordinated a study on climate justice, gender and inequalities, which is forthcoming by the Climate Observatory, and also actively participated in the translation of the book Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future, by Mary Robinson, in Brazil.

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The second in a two part speaker series, "Religion, Healthcare, and Politics in the Pandemic Context in Brazil" features lectures by Dr. Sandra Duarte Souza and Dr. Clarissa de Franco as they reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on religion and politics in Brazil.

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Insurgent Voices in Brazil's Lethal Democracy: Events in Honor Marielle Franco took place at San Diego State University on March 14-15, 2022. This panel, available here with simultaneous interpretation in English, brought together Débora Maria Silva, Rute Fiúza, and Mônica da Cunha into a discussion moderated by Gladys Mitchell-Walthour on human rights, state violence, and their struggles as activists and mothers whose children were murdered by the Brazilian state.

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The works of Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire (Recife, 1921–1997) have had significant world impact in education, community development, and even community health. As a critical scholar-activist deeply committed to the work of humanization through conscientização —the development of a critical consciousness— Freire not only decried the role educational institutions often play in reproducing inequalities, but emphasized how education could instead be a tool of liberation.

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The region of the Tapajós River in the Brazilian Amazon is the site of several planned mega-projects, including railroads, dams, mining, and the expansion of agro-business. In this virtual event, we screen the short documentary, “Threatened Tapajós” (directed by Thomaz Pedro, 2021) and hear from researchers, Vinícius da Silva Machado and Telma Monteiro, who contributed to a report produced by the Society for Threatened Peoples documenting the Indigenous response to the planned infrastructure projects that will impact their communities’ health and territory.

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The works of Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire (Recife, 1921–1997) have had significant world impact in education, community development, and even community health. As a critical scholar-activist deeply committed to the work of humanization through conscientização —the development of a critical consciousness— Freire not only decried the role educational institutions often play in reproducing inequalities, but emphasized how education could instead be a tool of liberation.

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"Negrafias in Downtown São Paulo: Presence and Representations of Blackness in Urban Art," a lecture by Marina Barbosa, was delivered on November 17, 2021 at the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University.

Marina Barbosa Marina is a Black Brazilian woman who researches art, musicalities, religion, and the Black body in dialogue with the city. She is a social scientist who holds a masters in art history. She is currently a PhD student in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo.

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The first in a two part speaker series, "Religion, Healthcare, and Politics in the Pandemic Context in Brazil" features lectures by Dr. Keila Pinezi and Dr. Rodrigo Toniol as they reflect on the social movements and actors who were part of the dispute in the political and religious realms and their impact on the public health realm.

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"Community-Based Economies" is the third in a three part series, Land Rights in the Brazilian Amazon. The series is sponsored by the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies, Nature and Culture International, Projeto Bem Viver, and the Department of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University.

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The Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies is pleased to host the launch of the new book, Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope, Despair, and Resistance in Brazil (Rutgers University Press), edited by Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Alvaro Jarrín and Lucia Cantero. Precarious Democracy brings together 15 evocative ethnographic accounts of how Brazilians from diverse walks of life have experienced and responded to economic precarity, political crisis, and diminishing hopes for the future from 2013 to 2019—a pivotal period in Brazilian history, bookended by the explosion of massive protests across the country in 2013 and the first year in office of hard-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

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Sônia Guajajara belongs to the Guajajara/Tentehar people, who live in the forests of the Araribóia in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. Her militancy began in her youth, in grassroots movements, but soon reached the National Congress – where she led the opposition against a series of projects that took away rights and threatened Indigenous peoples and the environment. In just a few years, she gained international prominence for her struggle waged on behalf of the rights of native peoples.  

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"Afro-Brazilian Religions and Religious Racism" is a lecture delivered by Dr. Gustavo Melo Cerqueira on October 7, 2021 to Dr. Daniela Gomes' course, AFRAS 300: Afro-Brazilian Community, Culture, and Identity. Gustavo Melo Cerqueira, Ph.D is babalorixá, actor and performer. Master of Arts and PhD in African Studies and the African Diaspora from the University of Texas at Austin, United States. Graduated in Law from the Federal University of Bahia. He worked with Cia. Teatro dos Novos and Bando de Teatro Olodum, in Salvador, and with Cia. dos Comuns in Rio de Janeiro. Develops research related to the black body in the performing arts and presence from the intersection of theories and methods of Black Studies, Performance Studies, Sociology and Theater. He is currently one of the coordinators of PELE NEGRA ESCOLA DE TEATRO(S) PRETO(S). In 2020, he was approved in first place in the contest for a postdoctoral scholarship in the Graduate Program in Performing Arts at UFBA. Unfortunately, CAPES suspended the registration of new scholarship holders, which prevents Gustavo from starting his postdoctoral research.

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The first discussion panel in the three part series, Land Rights in the Brazilian Amazon: The Struggle for Indigenous Land Demarcation, focuses on the historical context and recent action in the struggle to secure Indigenous rights to land in Brazil.

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Ivo Cípio Aureliano (Macuxi) is one of the four Indigenous lawyers who defended Indigenous peoples rights on September 1, 2021 at the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF). He holds a graduate degree in Public Law, with emphasis on Constitutional Law. 

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Ana Paula Souto Maior is a Brazilian lawyer who has worked with Indigenous peoples’ rights since 1986. She has experience with governmental, non-governmental, and Indigenous peoples organizations.

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"Utopia of Freedom in the Americas: Quilombo and Marronage as Social Organization in the Diaspora" is a lecture delivered by Dr. Davi Pereira Junior on September 30, 2021 to Dr. Daniela Gomes's course, AFRAS 300: Afro-Brazilian Community, Culture and Identity. Davi Pereira Junior, Ph.D. was born in the quilombola community of Itamatatiua in the south of the Municipality of Alcântara - Maranhão, Northeast Brazil. He holds a BA in History from the State University of Maranhão UEMA, a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Bahia UFBA, and a PhD in Latin American Studies from University of Texas at Austin. Pereira Junior has been a researcher for New Social Cartography in Brazil since 2005. He has extensive experience in researching and producing cartographies with Peoples and Traditional Communities in Brazil.

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On May 5, the date proclaimed by UNESCO, we pay homage to World Portuguese Language Day. Join to watch academic and diplomatic speeches, student and faculty participation, poetry, music, e muita alegria!

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The Kadiwéu are an indigenous people currently living between the Paraguay River and the Bodoquena Mountains in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Viviane Luiza Silva’s talk analyzes Kadiwéu pottery production in relation to the cultural, environmental, political, and economic contexts of Kadiwéu women’s labor. Kadiwéu artists and community leaders, Nayokolate and Edelson Fernandes, participated in the event and shared their perspectives of how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the Kadiwéu and the role of art-making in their community.

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The Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University is pleased to present "Samba Brasil! A Lecture by Sérgio Mielniczenko."

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Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Sérgio Mielniczenko moved to Los Angeles in 1974 to attend college. Since 1978, Mielniczenko has been the creator, host and producer of the Brazilian Hour, a weekly radio program that was one of the first radio programs in the U.S. dedicated to showcasing the best of Brazilian music. It is currently distributed to over 35 public radio stations across the United States, from Alaska to New York as well as world-wide in 5 languages and to over 150 embassies. 

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"'The Chicken is a Being': Clarice Lispector's Echo-Poetics" is a lecture delivered by Dr. Marília Librandi-Rocha on January 28, 2020. The event was organized by the Portuguese Program of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and sponsored by the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University.

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Race, Racism and Resistance in Latin America is a three-part lecture series co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Department of Africana Studies, and the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University. In the third event, Abner Francisco Sótenos, Monique Paula, and Watufani Poe discuss the Afro-Brazilian struggle for citizenship, including the deadly challenges facing Black women in the political arena and how the Black LGBTQA+ movements in Brazil and the United States find possibilities for connecting through social media and activism.

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The second discussion panel in the three part series, Indigenous Women and Sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: Climate Challenges and Territorial Protection addresses the struggle for legal recognition of Indigenous lands and the impact of climate change the Amazon region in Brazil. The series is sponsored by the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies, Nature and Culture International, Projeto Bem Viver, and at San Diego State University the Department of American Indian Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

The third discussion panel in the three part series, Indigenous Women and Sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: COVID-19 in Indigenous Amazonia addresses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the communities that live in the Amazon region in Brazil. The series is sponsored by the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies, Nature and Culture International, Projeto Bem Viver, and at San Diego State University the Department of American Indian Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

Sineia do Vale belongs to the Wapichana people. Graduated in Environmental Management, she has worked for almost three decades in the Environmental Department of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR). Since 2011, she has led projects that follow the impacts of climate change on the lives of the indigenous peoples of Roraima.

Marizete de Souza Macuxi belongs to the Macuxi people and is the general coordinator of the indigenous women's movement in the Serras region, located in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, in Roraima. Daughter of Jaci de Souza, an important leader of the Macuxi people in the fight for the demarcation of Raposa Serra do Sol, she has a degree in Indigenous Territorial Management and today works with federal deputy Joênia Wapichana, the first indigenous woman elected to Brazil's national congress.

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Telma Taurepang, of the Taurepang tribe, is the general coordinator of the União das Mulheres Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira (UMIAB). She was born in the Araça indigenous land and lives in the Mangueira Indigenous Community, located in the Amajarí region, in the Brazilian state of Roraima, where she maintains her ancestral roots and connections. Today she is also an Anthropology professor and academic.

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Mariazinha Baré is from the Baré People. She is an MBA student in project management at the Universidade Estadual do Amazonas and holds a masters in social anthropology from the Universidade Federal do Amazonas. She served as the coordinating secretary in the organization of Indigenous women of Amazonia, the União das Mulheres Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira. Today she is among the most prominent indigenous leaders in the Amazon and is currently a project manager for the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).

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The first discussion panel in the three part series, Indigenous Women and Sustainability in the Brazilian Amazon: Policy and Politics for the Environment addresses deforestation, fires, and the policies that impact the Amazon region in Brazil. The series is sponsored by the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies, Nature and Culture International, Projeto Bem Viver, and at San Diego State University the Department of American Indian Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

The Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University interviewed Carolina Monnerat and Teddy Collatos in September 2020 to discuss their feature-length documentary, Queen of Lapa. Queen of Lapa was the October 2020 film of the SDSU Brazilian Film Series. To watch our virtual film series, visit the Film Series page.

The Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies is pleased to present as part of our Health Lecture Series "The Semiotics of COVID-19 through the Eyes of a Clinician: Perspectives from Brazil and the United States" by Carlos Alberto von Mühlen, MD, PhD. Dr. von Mühlen completed his Masters Degree at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, specializing in internal medicine and rheumatology and his PhD at the Rhineland-Westphalia Technical University in Aachen, Germany. Dr. von Mühlen has extensive experience in clinical medicine, focusing on rheumatology and autoimmune diseases.

This panel brought together three distinguished research scholars from Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - FIOCRUZ in Rio de Janeiro and Getúlio Vargas Foundation, São Paulo Brazil to discuss the historical and present day context of racism against persons of African heritage in Brazil, including the sociological construction of racism in Brazil and resulting social exclusion and inequalities; the use of the race/color indicators in epidemiological studies in Brazil; and the impact of substance use among socially-excluded communities in Brazil.