Informativo - March 2009
GSD Studio Brings Harvard Faculty and Students to Study "Cantinho do Céu" in São Paulo
The new Spring 2009 studio course titled "A Place in Heaven, a Place in Hell: Tactical Operations in São Paulo’s Informal Sector" brought 13 Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) graduate students who had never been to Brazil to a favela at the Billings water reservoir to grapple with a range of environmental and urban planning challenges of precarious informal settlements. Led by GSD Prof. Christian Werthmann, Program Director in the Department of Landscape Architecture, along with two co-instructor Design Critics, the studio was co-sponsored by Schahin Engenharia S/A, Carioca Engenharia S/A, and the São Paulo Housing Agency (SEHAB), which is entering a new era of favela upgrading where ecology and sustainability play bigger roles. During the week of March 2nd, the group participated in field visits to both Cantinho do Céu and Paraisópolis and had a meeting with local residents. At an all-day workshop organized at the Harvard-DRCLAS Brazil Office, students presented their innovative preliminary projects to SEHAB architects and engineers. Topics ranged from the provision of replacement housing, recreational areas, different uses of vegetation, waterfront infrastructures, and new transportation channels. Several of the students’ ideas are now being seriously considered for implementation by the municipality. The studio fieldwork was covered widely by both print and television media (see link above).
This year, thanks to the organization of Eduardo de Campos Queiroz, a current Lemann Fellow in the Edward S. Mason Program at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), the Harvard Business School (HBS) Rugby Football Club is traveling to Brazil during spring break. With a 45-year history, the team welcomes graduate students from throughout the Harvard community and is the most active sports club at HBS. It was the top American MBA rugby team in the 2007-2008 season and is currently tuning up for the MBA World Championships in April 2009 at Duke University. In this Brazil Tour, the team will play games in São Paulo (on Sunday, March 22nd vs. SPAC Rugby), in Rio de Janeiro (vs. Niterói Rugby Football Clube), and Salvador (on Saturday, March 28th, vs. Orixás Rugby). Please see the link above for updated game schedules and other events with the group.
Record Number of Students Apply to Harvard Summer Programs in Brazil
A record number of Harvard undergraduate and graduate students have applied this February to summer programs in Brazil. Twenty-two students have applied to the Public Policy Immersion Program organized by the Harvard-DRCLAS Brazil Office (17 College students and 5 graduate students from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Law School). This new nine-week summer internship program - open to students with intermediate Portuguese - will take place in São Paulo and Brasília. The core of the immersion experience is centered on challenging policy-focused internships with some of Brazil’s leading organizations. Twenty-four Harvard College students and ten Harvard graduate students have applied to the Harvard Summer School Program in Rio de Janeiro. Led by Dr. Clémence Jouët-Pastré and hosted at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), this is a dynamic second-year-level course in Portuguese language and Brazilian culture.
Brazil Studies Program Events in Cambridge Continue to Draw Crowds
The Brazil Studies Program continues to host Conversas and other special seminars. On March 5th, the Program hosted a Conversa comparing Brazil’s political economic reality to that of the other BRIC nations, particularly India and China. The speakers were HBS Professors Tarun Khanna (Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor) and Aldo Musacchio (Assistant Professor of Business Administration). Prof. Khanna has just published the book Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours; and Prof. Musacchio is author of the forthcoming book: Experiments in Financial Democracy: Corporate Governance and Financial Development in Brazil, 1882-1950. DRCLAS Director Merilee Grindle moderated this very lively session. On Feb. 26th the Program co-sponsored a Brazil Studies Workshop with Jeffrey Needell (Professor of History at the University of Florida) who presented a paper on the uses of political history when analyzing the process of abolitionism in Brazil. Co-sponsored with the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures (RLL), on Feb. 13 the Program held a seminar with Licia Valladares (University of Lille, France) and Bruno Carvalho (Teaching Fellow in Portuguese, RLL PhD Candidate and former Lemann Fellow) which provided both a rich historical perspective as well as an overview of the challenges facing favelas in Rio de Janeiro today. On Feb. 12th the Program sponsored a Conversa on contemporary challenges to Afro-Brazilian religions with J. Lorand Matory (Professor of Anthropology and of African and African American Studies at Harvard) and Vagner Gonçalves da Silva (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Universidade de São Paulo; Fellow, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard).
Roger Agnelli, Tasso Jereissati and other Brazilian Leaders at HBS Latin American Conference
The XI Harvard Business School (HBS) Latin American Conference - "Shaping the Future Today" - was held on March 7th, organized by HBS students and co-sponsored by DRCLAS, General Atlantic, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and the HBS Latino Alumni Association. This year had a very strong Brazilian participation. Among the speakers from Brazil were Roger Agnelli (CEO, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce); Tasso Jereissati (Senator from Ceará); Fernando Soares (Co-Founder, IMBRA Dentist Clinics); José Carlos Magalhães (Managing Partner, Tarpon Investment Group); Fernando Oliveira (Head of Latin America Group, General Atlantic); Roberto Engels (CEO, BioCapital); and Wilson Amaral de Oliveira (CEO, Gafisa Residential Developer). Workshop topics included Entrepreneurship, Foreign Direct Investment, Venture Capital, Social Enterprise, Real Estate, Health Care, and Energy. A group of Brazilian students at Harvard and MIT had an off-the-record private dinner with Senator Tasso Jereissati during the conference, organized by Carla Pontes (MBA '09).
» The São Paulo that became a school to students from around the world (O Estado de São Paulo, March 8, 2009)
» Estudantes americanos vieram ao Brasil para conhecer uma favela (TV Globo - SPTV 1ª Edição, March 7, 2009)
» A Foreign Look - Harvard in the slum Corner of Heaven (Folha de São Paulo, March 5, 2009)
» Learning from Slums (Boston Globe, March 1, 2009)
» O Fator Humano (Revista FAPESP, February 1, 2009)