Duke's third annual Global Brazil Conference highlights three main themes–politics, nature, and culture–and showcases scholars from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Madison, Tulane University and Duke University. A series of panel discussions including students and faculty will expand upon lines of inquiry highlighted in the keynotes.

The first session will focus on the increasing political and policy salience of race with a talk by the President elect of the Brazilian Studies Association, Dr. Gladys L Mitchell-Walthour from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The second session will showcase research by Dr. Christine Folch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke and Co-Director at Global Brazil Lab and DBI, on Itaipú Hydroelectric Dam (Brazil-Paraguay) and the long term sustainability of renewable energy-led development. Dr. Jacob Blanc of the University of Wisconsin-Madison will join her to discuss the local impact of the dam.

Shifting to culture, the arts, and politics, the third session will be led by Dr. Christopher Dunn of Tulane University and Dr. Esther Gabara, E. Blake Bryne Associate Professor of Romance Studies and Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke. They will discuss counterculture and Pop art during Brazil’s authoritarian regime of the 1960s and 70s, the topic of a major international exhibit Gabara is curating for the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke.

The conference will conclude with a Brazilian musical presentation and reception.