Applications from Brazil encouraged for Lemann Visiting Scholar opportunity at DRCLAS (February 1 deadline)

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) selects annually a number of distinguished academics (Visiting Scholars) and professionals (Fellows) to spend one or two semesters at Harvard working on their own research and writing projects. The Center is currently seeking applications from Brazil for its Lemann Visiting Scholar program, which was endowed with a gift from Jorge Paulo Lemann and is available to scholars and practitioners from Brazil or those who are working on Brazilian topics. Visiting Scholars and Fellows are selected competitively on the basis of the applicant's qualifications, the quality of the applicant's research plans, and the relevance of both to the Center's mission and objectives. Visiting Scholars and Fellows are provided shared office space, computer, library borrowing privileges, access to University facilities and events, and opportunities to audit classes and attend seminars in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in other Harvard professional schools. Each Visiting Scholar or Fellow is expected to present a lecture in English on a topic related to his or her research and encouraged to be available for formal for informal consultation by faculty and students with related interests.

Brazil Studies Program launches Spring Events Series in Cambridge

The Brazil Studies Program will launch the Spring 2009 calendar of events at its Faculty Advisory Committee meeting on February 4, led by interim faculty chair Merilee Grindle (DRCLAS Director and Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development at the Kennedy School). The Program hopes to continue to attract great interest from Harvard students, faculty and staff to its events, including four lunch-time "Conversas" seminars featuring academics addressing a range of topics from contemporary challenges to Afro-Brazilian religions; Brazil’s political economy in contrast to the other BRIC nations; to how Machado de Assis became a universal writer. "Conversa" speakers and moderators will include: Prof. Vagner Gonçalves da Silva (Universidade de São Paulo; Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research); Prof. John Gledson (University of Liverpool Hispanic Studies); and Harvard Professors J. Lorand Matory (Anthropoly and African and African American Studies); Harvey Cox (Hollis Professor of Divinity); Tarun Khanna (Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School - HBS); Aldo Musacchio (Assistant Professor of Business, Government, and International Economy at HBS); and Joaquim-Francisco Coelho and Nicolau Sevcenko (both senior faculty in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures). In addition to continuing to co-sponsor a Brazilian film series with the student-run Harvard Brazilian Organization, the Program will host a Brazil Studies Workshop with Jeffrey Needell (Professor of History and Affiliate Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Florida), presenting on "Brazilian Abolitionism, Its Historiography, and the Uses of Political History". The Program will also co-sponsor a DRCLAS Tuesday Seminar on Brazil, featuring Suresh Naidu (Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies Scholar), who will present on "Candidate Identity and Political Institutions: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Brazil". With the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures (RLL), the Brazil Studies Program will co-sponsor a seminar entitled "The Favelas of Rio de Janeiro Yesterday and Today: Poverty, Urban Reform and Music" with Prof. Licia Valladares (University of Lille, France), Bruno Carvalho (Teaching Fellow in Portuguese and RLL PhD Candidate) and Clémence Jouët-Pastré (RLL Senior Preceptor and Undergraduate Adviser in Portuguese), as well as the 7th Annual BRAZIL WEEK, led by Dr. Jouët-Pastré, which this year will focus on "Brazilian Immigration to the United States: Linking Theory and Action".

DRCLAS Brazil Office launches Public Policy Immersion Program in São Paulo and Brasília

A new Summer Internship Program will expose students to the complexity of the challenges Brazil faces by giving them an opportunity to work on problems related to the reform of the nation’s government, health and education systems. Between June 1 and August 4 of 2009, ten Harvard students will be selected to participate in a 9-week intensive program targeted at gaining hands-on experience in a policy-focused internship with some of Brazil’s leading institutions in São Paulo. Students will apply problem-solving and policy research skills based on participation in substantive internships in education, public health, and public policy. Students will also travel to Brasília for discussions with key Brazilian leaders, as well as to understand the functioning of the policy-making process in an international context. Professor Alex Keyssar (Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School) will lead the one-week orientation trip to Brasília. In São Paulo, students will be fully immersed in a professional work environment--in Portuguese--in a local organization. Participants will be charged with a specific project under their responsibility. They will also be integrated and assigned with additional projects and duties to give them a comprehensive exposure to the work of the organization. In the final week, Harvard students will present the results of their projects in a capstone seminar that will include the participation of host organizations, Brazilian academics, and students.

Collaborative Public Health Field Course in Bahia connects students and strengthens faculty ties

With the support of multiple sources including the Brazilian CNPq, the Harvard Initiative for Global Health, the DRCLAS’ Pedro Conde Filho Funds, and the Lemann Family Endowment, the second annual Collaborative Public Health Brazil Field Course came to a successful close this week at the Fiocruz in Salvador, Bahia. From HSPH, the course was led by Prof. Mary Wilson (Associate Clinical Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Global Health and Population at HSPH), with additional lectures and project mentoring by Professors Sofia Gruskin (Director, HSPH Program on International Health and Human Rights and Associate Professor of Health and Human Rights); Marcia Castro (HSPH Assistant Professor of Demography); and John David (Professor of Tropical Public Health, Emeritus, in the HSPH Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases). Prof. Mitermayer Reis, Director of the Centro de Pesquisa Gonçalo Moniz, served as the lead faculty member at the Fiocruz, the local host institution. Paulo Gadelha, President of the Fiocruz, congratulated Brazilian and HSPH students and faculty for their participation and for the students’ final projects. The course is one of the concrete outgrowths of the inaugural 2007 Harvard-Brazil Symposium on Public Health, and involved a number of symposium participants including Guilherme Ribeiro, former Lemann Fellow (2006) at HSPH and one of the lead course coordinators.

Harvard alumni in Brazil invited to Princeton Week in Rio de Janeiro

Harvard and Princeton alumni in Brazil are teaming up to build a solid and larger stream of College applicants through the new "Princeton & Harvard Preparatory Program". This initiative will help exceptional talents without college counseling programs apply to top universities in the US. The program will select 10-20 Brazilian schools across the country based on their academic prowess and commitment. Additional information will be announced at the first-ever Princeton in Brazil Week, a historic Brazil Princeton Reunion from January 26th to 30th. All Harvard alumni in Brazil are invited to join a series of happy hours, networking, lectures, economics panels, excursions and performances. Speakers will include Arminio Fraga, Francisco Gros, and Professor Jeremy Adelman. The Nassoons, Princeton's oldest a cappella group, will perform. All events are free of charge.