Brazil has become an increasingly important voice in debates around international development. This is largely thanks to its record of sustained economic growth, strong regional ties and policy changes aimed to improve social and economic conditions for its population. In spite of these endeavours, in recent decades, a wave of social movements propelled by the search for local identity formation has emerged in Brazil.
The main objective of this debate is to critically analyze and better understand processes of representation of identity and difference in the territories of Brazil as well as to describe and theorize the different uses of the new social media in these processes. We wish to explore the Brazilian territory from the point of view of cultural hybridity, as an evolving space that fosters contestation, exchange and antagonism.
We will discuss Brazilian culture in specific terms, bridging perspectives from cultural studies with insights from other disciplines in order s to explore the some of the divergent processes that have led to the broad range of cultural representations manifest in contemporary Brazil. Amongst other topics, we will discuss the issues of miscegenation, or the myth of racial democracy and the contemporary politics of identity alongside issues of popular culture, mass media and new technologies.
‘Brazil: a landscape in motion’ brings together international interdisciplinary scholars who are teaching and researching in the area of Brazilian Studies, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Providing a new forum for dialogue, this workshop promises to make an important contribution to the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Information:
http://hutnyk.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/brazil-a-landscape-in-motion-workshop-22-5-2013/