The goal of the Rio Branco Forum on Brazil is to encourage the study and research of Brazilian politics and culture at Berkeley and in the Bay Area. In addition to the public forum, which includes lectures, conferences and cultural activities, CLAS hosts the Rio Branco Visiting Chair of Brazil. These activities have resulted in a transnational working network of Brazilianists.

Evan Lieberman
“Institutions and Identities: Explaining the Policy Response to HIV/AIDS in Brazil and South Africa”

Evan Lieberman is Assistant Professor of Politics and faculty director of the Princeton AIDS Initiative at Princeton University. The author of Race and Regionalism in the Politics of Taxation in Brazil and South Africa (Cambridge University Press 2003), Prof. Lieberman is currently working on a study of the politics of AIDS around the world as well as on various projects concerned with comparative research methods.

-Professor Lieberman's homepage at Princeton
-Paper: "Taxation Data as Indicators of State-Society Relations: Possibilities and Pitfalls in Cross-National Research" (.pdf document)

Co-sponsored with the Department of Political Science.

Friday, January 21, 2:00 pm
Room 202, Barrows Hall

Photos of the event

Justice Joaquim Benedito Barbosa Gomes
“Recent Developments in Brazilian Public Law”

In 2003, Justice Barbosa became the first Afro-Brazilian member of the Supreme Court of Brazil. After graduating from law school, he worked for several years as a procurator in the Federal Public Ministry and subsequently obtained a master’s degree and a doctorate in public law at the University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas). He has written extensively on affirmative action, race, equality and comparative constitutional law.

- Article from Sydney Morning Herald about Justice Barbosa's appointment to the Supreme Court

-Also part of the Current Issues and New Perspectives in Latin American Law series. Co-sponsored with the Boalt Hall School of Law. A presentation of the Robbins Collection Lectures in Political Culture and Legal Tradition.

Tuesday, February 8, 4:00 pm
Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall

Analysis and photo of the event

Gilberto Gil
"Contemporary Brazilian Culture"

Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil is one of the most important singers and composers in modern Brazilian pop music. In the 1960s he helped start the Tropicália movement that combined Brazil’s regional folk culture with international influences to create a new style of cinema, literature and music. He has served as Minister of Culture under President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva since 2003.

- Minister Gil's website
- Feature from the Guardian about Minister Gil

This is a ticketed event. Tickets will be available at the Wheeler Auditorium box office beginning at 6:00 pm. Tickets are free of charge and will be given out on a first come, first served basis. One ticket per person.

Webcast of the event
Text of Minister Gil's speech (.pdf file)

Please note that cameras and camcorders are not permitted except for those carried by registered media representatives.

Thursday, February 17, 7:00 pm
Wheeler Auditorium, Wheeler Hall

Analysis and photos of the event

Nicholas Arons
"Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Drought"

When droughts hit northeastern Brazil, thousands of rural workers are forced to abandon their homes and hundreds die of remediable disease. The double impact of drought and corruption — with politicians taking advantage of drought to buy votes and pilfer government accounts — contributes to an endless cycle of human suffering. Nicholas Arons utilizes traditional social science scholarship as well as literature, popular art and oral history to interpret the impact of drought and the phenomenon of drought politics.

Nicholas Arons graduated from NYU Law School. He is currently Legal Advisor to the Palau Mission to the UN and a Fellow in NYU Law School’s Institute for International Law and Justice.

- Mr. Arons' article on the drought in Brazil
- Article by Mr. Arons on the drinking culture in Brazil

Cosponsored with the Department of Anthropology and the Townsend Center for the Humanities.

Friday, February 18, 4:00 pm
Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

Walter Salles
“A Conversation with Walter Salles”

Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles broke onto the international scene with the award-winning 1995 feature Foreign Land. Since then Salles has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, directing films such as Central Station and The Motorcycle Diaries, both nominated for Academy Awards. In addition to his work as a director and screenwriter, Salles has produced films by young Brazilian filmmakers including City of God and Madame Satã.

Mr. Salles will discuss his films and show clips from some of his recent works.

Friday, March 4, 7:00 pm
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business (map)

Analysis and photos of the event

As Chief Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil, Luiz Dulci is one of the closest advisors to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Minister Dulci is also among the founders of the PT, the Brazilian Worker’s Party, and the CUT, Brazil’s leading national labor confederation. Since the foundation of the PT, he has held several important roles both within the party and for the party’s administrative governments, including work with Fundação Perseu Abramo, the PT’s political research foundation, and with the municipal government of Belo Horizonte.

Webcasts of the event in Portuguese and English.

Monday, March 14, 4:00 pm
Morrison Room, Doe Library

Analysis and photos of the event

Luiz Fernando Furlan
Ethanol and Renewable Fuels: The Brazilian Experience

Luiz Fernando Furlan was appointed Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign
Trade by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002. Prior to becoming minister, he was President of the Administration Council of Sadia S.A., one of Brazil’s largest food processing companies. Minister Furlan has held several executive positions including Second Vice-President and Director of Foreign Trade at FIESP/CIESP (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo), Vice-President of the Brazilian Foreign Trade Association and President, from 2000 to 2002, of the Entrepreneurial Leaders Forum. He has also served as a member of the Global Corporate Governance Forum and the Private Sector Advisory Group of the World Bank.

Wednesday, April 20, 6:00 pm
Lounge, Women's Faculty Club

Analysis and photos of the event

Congresswoman Denise Frossard
“Criminal Law and Corruption in Brazil”
National Congress of Brazil

In the early 1990s, Brazilian Congresswoman Denise Frossard was the trial judge who convicted several of the most prominent organized crime bosses in Rio de Janeiro. After the judgment, she spent a year in the United States, returning to head the Brazilian branches of Transparency International and the Women’s Bank. In 2002, she was elected Rio de Janeiro’s Representative to the Brazilian Congress in a landslide, garnering more votes in that election than any of her colleagues.

-Also part of the Current Issues and New Perspectives in Latin American Law series. Co-sponsored with the Boalt Hall School of Law. A presentation of the Robbins Collection Lectures in Political Culture and Legal Tradition.

Postponed