Brazil Archives | Research & Innovation

Researcher awarded prestigious Banting Fellowship comes to 91��ɫ

muellerm — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Nielson Bezerra, who received his PhD at Universidade Federal de Fluminense in Brazil in 2010 and now teaches at Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, has been awarded a prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue his research program at 91��ɫ’s Harriet Tubman Institute.

The awards were announced by Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science & technology, Thursday, Sept. 13. Bezerra will receive $140,000 in research funding over two years.

Nielson Bezerra

Bezarra’s research project, Liberated African Slaves in Brazil in the Nineteenth Century, examines patterns of forced migration of enslaved Africans to the Americas after the British and North American abolition of the slave trade. The research focuses on the 100,000 enslaved Africans who were destined for Brazil, but were removed from slave ships by the British Royal Navy after 1820 and declared “Liberated Africans”.

The individuals taken off these ships provide a representative sample of the migration to Brazil in this period. They will be studied for the purposes of revealing the broader pattern in determining where people came from in Africa and what happened to them in the Americas. Bezerra has published four books and is a member of the Board of Directors of Museu Vivo do São Bento in Duque de Caxias.

"The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships are Canada's most prestigious awards for postdoctoral researchers," said Goodyear. "These internationally competitive awards allow our country to retain and attract some of the best and brightest researchers in the world, thereby building Canada's economic and competitive edge."

91��ɫ’s Vice-President Research & Innovation, Robert Haché, said, “We are most pleased to have Dr. Nielson Bezarra pursue his research program at 91��ɫ. The Banting Fellowship program leverages an opportunity to attract, retain and recognize exceptional postdoctoral researchers and support them early in their careers.”

As a post-doctoral fellow at 91��ɫ, Bezerra will be supervised by Professor Paul Lovejoy, Distinguished Research Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History and director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples. Bezerra joins a research team that is digitizing and analyzing documentation on Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone, Angola, Cuba, and elsewhere, besides Brazil.

The purpose of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships is to build world-class research capacity by recruiting top-tier Canadian and international postdoctoral researchers at an internationally competitive level of funding. Seventy fellowships are awarded yearly through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

The post Researcher awarded prestigious Banting Fellowship comes to 91��ɫ appeared first on Research & Innovation.

President bound for Brazil as part of AUCC mission

fmaquito — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri will visit Brazil from April 25 to May 2 as part of a delegation to promote Canada-Brazil partnerships in research, innovation and higher education.

The mission, led by the Governor General of Canada David Johnston, is the largest of its kind in Canadian history, with more than two dozen Canadian university presidents making stops in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Campinas and Brasilia. It is organized by the Association of Canadian Colleges & Universities (AUCC).

Canadian university presidents will be visiting Rio de Janeiro as part of their tour of Brazil

In the next five years, Brazil is expected to become the fifth-largest economy in the world; the delegates will work to establish partnerships that will address the research interests of both countries and foster long-term prosperity.

As part of the mission, 91��ɫ will announce two undergraduate entrance scholarships for Brazilian students, along with a pair of scholarships to study English through the 91��ɫ English Language Institute (YUELI).

Shoukri will also be a signatory on a Memorandum of Understanding between 91��ɫ, Simon Fraser University, Ryerson University, Concordia University and the State of São Paulo research foundation, (FAPESP). The memorandum encourages collaboration between researchers at SFU, Concordia, 91��ɫ and Ryerson and those working in public or private research or teaching institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

“It is important that 91��ɫ participate in this mission,” Shoukri says. “Our aim is that our students become ‘citizens of the world’, by increasing their knowledge and skills through globally connected, internationalized programs, research and campuses. This new era of partnership with Brazil is an extension of 91��ɫ’s leadership in international education, international research and collaboration with international institutions.”

The Fundação Dom Cabral - Campus

91��ɫ’s Schulich School of Business will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazil’s Fundação Dom Cabral, a centre for executive development, for collaboration in research and teaching. The institutions will share knowledge around sustainability and responsible business, and jointly provide executive education training and development programs with Brazilian companies. Schulich will also establish the Brookfield Brazil Internship Program, an opportunity for up to four of the school’s MBA/IMBA students to participate in a structured work term in the Brazilian operations of a globally oriented Canadian-based firm.

In keeping with strengthening ties between Schulich and Brazilian institutions, Schulich Dean Dezsö Horváth will give a special address to the Federation of the Industries of Sao Paulo (FIESP), with introductory remarks provided by Shoukri.

Stephen Toope, chair of AUCC and president of The University of British Columbia, says the delegation aims to strengthen existing partnerships with Brazil and create new opportunities.

“This is the largest international mission of university presidents in Canadian history, which speaks to the importance of building connections with this emerging economic powerhouse,” says Toope. “Our focus is on establishing and strengthening partnerships in research and innovation. We will also enhance opportunities for student mobility between our countries, providing experiences that will better prepare students in both countries for the new knowledge-driven economy.”

Canada’s universities, including 91��ɫ, will welcome an estimated 12,000 Brazilian students between 2012 and 2016, through the Canadian component of Brazil’s ambitious Science Without Borders scholarship program. Through these scholarships, more than 100,000 Brazilians will study, undertake internships and conduct research in selected countries around the world over a four-year period.

The Brazil mission is being led by the Governor General of Canada David Johnston. AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities, representing 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities. For more information, click .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post President bound for Brazil as part of AUCC mission appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Tubman Institute hosts Africa conference; topics include latest uprisings in North Africa

fmaquito — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

An upcoming Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) conference at 91��ɫ – Africa Here; Africa There – will look not only at Africa of the past, but discuss recent and ongoing issues, especially those in North Africa, says conference co-organizer and 91��ɫ history Professor José Curto.

The conference will take place Thursday, May 5, from 8am to 8pm, and Friday, May 6, from 8am to 8:30pm, in the Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, Keele campus. On Saturday, May 7, sessions will take place from 9:30am to 3:30pm in 001 Winters College, Dining Hall, Keele campus.

One of the round tables will look at revolutions in northern Africa, while another, chaired by Curto, will explore Angola under the Weight of the Slave Trade during the 18th and 19th centuries. “We’re doing the past, but we’re also doing very contemporary issues,” says Curto. The first session of the conference will be a round table via the web with presenters from Brazil looking at the present and future perspectives of African studies in Brazil.

The three plenary speakers will tackle a range of topics. Political science and Islamic studies Professor Khalid Mustafa Medani of McGill University will talk about “Informal Institutions and Identity Politics: The Evolving Political Economy of Transnationalism in North East Africa”, sociology Professor Imed Melliti of the Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines at the University of Tunis el-Manar will address “Jeunesses maghrébines: religiosité, enjeux identitaires et enjeux de reconnaissance” and Donald G. Simpson, who leads Innovation Expedition, will speak about “Africa – Here and There in the Sixties: A Canadian Perspective”.

Left: Khalid Mustafa Medani

Medani was named a Carnegie Scholar on Islam in 2007 by the Carnegie Corporation of New 91��ɫ, Melliti is the author of several books, while Simpson is the former director of the International Development Research Centre and the Centre for International Business at the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. For more biographical information on the plenary speakers, visit the website.

The conference theme, Africa Here; Africa There, is in recognition of the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent. The meeting will be hosted by 91��ɫ’s and will have sessions in both French and English.

Right: Donald G. Simpson

“What we are doing is not only focusing on the continent itself, but outside the continent,” says Curto. “Through the conference we are highlighting the bridge we’re making between the diaspora and the homeland.”

The second round table of the conference, Africa Here: Commemorating the Early African Canadian Experience, will be chaired by 91��ɫ Professor Michele Johnson, co-author of the book They Do as They Please: The Jamaican Struggle for Cultural Freedom after Morant Bay (University of West Indies Press), which will as part of the conference. Taking part in this round table panel will be 91��ɫ Distinguished Research Professor in African history Paul Lovejoy looking at “Africa Here: Itineraries of African Canadian Memory and the UNESCO Slave Route Project”, Hilary Dawson of the Harriet Tubman Institute discussing “Locating Sites of Memory: Tracing an Itinerary of Memory for the African Canadian Experience” and Karolyn Smardz Frost, a research associate with the Harriet Tubman Institute, talking about “Slavery, Resistance and the Underground Railroad in Toronto”.

There will be presenters from Canada, the United States, Australia and Africa at the conference. 91��ɫ history PhD candidate Jeff Gunn will discuss “Child Soldiers and Modern Slavery in the 21st Century”, while 91��ɫ Professor Emeritus John S. Saul will discuss a “New Counter-Hegemonic Project in Contemporary South Africa: Moeletsi Mbeki, Zwelinzima Vavi and the Democratic Left Forum. Some of the other sessions will examine topics such as: Africa in Canada, Border Security in African Contexts, Governance and Management of Natural Resources in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, Perspectives on Gender in Africa, Urban Unrest in South Africa and Africans on the Move.

Lovejoy, director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, will also chair the sessions examining The Central Sudan in Nineteenth & Early Twentieth Centuries and Aspects of the Slave Trade in the Atlantic World. In addition, there will be screenings of several documentaries, including Behind the Rainbow by Jihan El-Tahri, Sembene! By Jason Silverman and Escape from Luanda by Phil Grabsky.

For more information, including a detailed listing of speakers and sessions, visit the conference website or the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Tubman Institute hosts Africa conference; topics include latest uprisings in North Africa appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Dance Professor Danielle Robinson researches the samba de roda's cultural significance in Brazil

fmaquito — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Salvador da Bahia, the second most popular tourist destination in Brazil, is a lively, tropical city on the northeast coast with a population of over two million. Musical rhythms from many different cultures can be heard in its bustling marketplaces, amidst the old Portuguese architecture and on its sandy beaches. In Salvador da Bahia it is commonplace for music and dance to transform streets, backyards and living rooms into performance spaces.

If you are lucky enough, you might get a chance to see the dynamic circle dance that the (UNESCO) has called "a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage" – the samba de roda. It is here in Salvador and its surrounding countryside that 91��ɫ dance Professor Danielle Robinson (right) engages with the music, dance and culture of samba de roda, the history of which is rooted in rural Brazil and its plantation past. Robinson is drawn to the improvisational character of samba de roda "as a way of moving, thinking, adapting and living."

In this practice, "the music and dance are held together by shared syncopated rhythms, a collective history of colonization and an overall ethos of joy," said Robinson. "People switch between dancing, playing, singing and clapping as the spirit moves them. No one can just watch, everyone eventually ends up in the circle, which is a powerful, inclusive community space."

��ǲ��Բ��ǲ�’s -funded research aims to emphasize samba de roda’s improvisational character and the consequent diversity of movements. Throughout her research, Robinson seeks to understand how participants imagine and embody their relationships with the "roots" of samba, how they distinguish themselves from other movement and dance practitioners and how increasing cultural tourism is changing the practice profoundly, thanks to the recognition from UNESCO.

All of the original materials, including music recordings, music scores, interview transcriptions and translations, video documentation and still images, will eventually be held in the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections in order to promote further research. A parallel collection will also be placed at the Federal University of Bahia in the new Brazilian Popular Culture Research Centre (Centro de Estudos das Tradições Orais Brasileiras) that is currently being planned.

Robinson adds that the people she is working with in Salvador da Bahia want to collaborate and contribute, not be treated as passive research subjects. For this reason, the culminating book, with its numerous forms of writing by lifelong sambadores, includes interviews, song lyrics and essays, as well as writings by local Brazilian researchers.

Although ��ǲ��Բ��ǲ�’s research aims to speak to ethnographers, especially those working in dance and music of the African diaspora, Robinson also hopes "to offer another model of decolonizing research to other scholars working cross-culturally."

Throughout her academic career, Robinson has focused on experiences of identity, industry and appropriation as lived by participants in popular African diasporic dance practices like samba de roda. In particular, she is interested in "community-based dancing and its ability to construct, navigate and contest social divides and stereotypes." Growing up in the southern United States just after segregation ended, she is especially invested in understanding race relations and their manifestations in expressive culture.

Before joining 91��ɫ’s Dance Department in 2005, Robinson taught at the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil, as well as at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Texas, Austin. Her articles have been published in Dance Theatre Journal, Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle and Dance Research. At 91��ɫ, she is cross-appointed to the 91��ɫ & Ryerson Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture. She is a Fellow of 91��ɫ’s Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean, the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples and Winters College. Her varied research and teaching experiences have led to what she considers one of the high points of her career so far. In 2009, she received the Faculty of Fine Arts Dean’s Junior Teaching Award.

By Jacquelin Chatterpaul, Faculty of Fine Arts research officer aide

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Dance Professor Danielle Robinson researches the samba de roda's cultural significance in Brazil appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Video: Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed Talks to the Agenda about the G20 and emerging powers

fmaquito — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies' Department of Political Science took part in a panel discussion on the status and responsibilities of the leaders of G20 countries and the emerging powers of India, Brazil and China on TVO’s “The Agenda” June 22. The clip runs almost 37 minutes. You can .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

The post Video: Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed Talks to the Agenda about the G20 and emerging powers appeared first on Research & Innovation.