September 14, 2011
Room 9206/07
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Speakers:
Brazil’s Economic Leadership: Prospects and Challenges
Thomas Trebat, Columbia University
New Approaches to Development: Infrastructure
Mauricio Font, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies
The Brazilian Left: Nurturing Hope, Deepening Democracy, and Combating Inequalities
John D. French, Duke University
Public Security in Brazil
Desmond Arias, John Jay College & The Graduate Center, CUNY
Moderator:
Amy Chazel, Queens College & The Graduate Center, CUNY
This panel discusses the evolving debates and agenda about the role of the state in Brazilian society. It also helps launch the new volume, The Brazilian State: Debate and Agenda (Lanham and New York: Lexington Books, 2011) edited by Professors Mauricio Font and Laura Randall, with the special assistance of Janaina Saad. A small reception will be held before the panel discussion. For more information about this volume, visit the Lexington Books website www.lexingtonbooks.com
About the Panel:
Mauricio Font is director of the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies and professor of sociology at The Graduate Center and Queens College, City University of New York. His research examines problems of development and reform in Brazil, Cuba and Latin America as well as international cooperation in the Western Hemisphere.
Thomas J. Trebat is Executive Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies and of the Institute’s Center for Brazilian Studies. Prior to joining ILAS in February 2005, Dr. Trebat worked for Citigroup, Bankers Trust, the Ford Foundation, and Chemical Bank focusing on economic research in Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University and remains active in teaching and publishing. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the author of Brazil’s State-Owned Enterprises: A Case Study of the State as Entrepreneur (1983).
Desmond Arias is professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. He is also a member of the faculty of the doctoral program in Criminal Justice at the Graduate Center. His research focuses on security and politics in developing societies. His research on criminal organization, human rights, and democratic order is based on field work in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Kingston, Jamaica, and Medellín, Colombia.
John D. French is professor of History and African and African-American Studies at Duke University whose books include The Brazilian Workers’ ABC (1992), Drowning in Laws: Labor Law and Brazilian Political Culture (2004), and a co-edited volume The Gendered Worlds of Latin American Women Workers (1997). He is currently finishing a manuscript entitled Lula’s Politics of Cunning: From Trade Unionism to the Brazilian Presidency.
The Brazilian State: Debate and Agenda
We are delighted to announce the launch of the book The Brazilian State: Debate and Agenda (Lanham and New York: Lexington Books, 2011) edited by Professors Mauricio Font and Laura Randall, with the special assistance of Janaina Saad.
Part of the Bildner Western Hemisphere Studies series, The Brazilian State explores the changing roles, relation with society, and overall impact of the contemporary Brazilian State. The 16 chapters by scholars from Brazil and the United States contribute to the understanding of various policy areas in an emerging and fast-growing country. Collectively, the papers probe the relationship between state reform, institutional development, policy effectiveness, and economic dynamics since the 1930s, and provide analyses of issues that will be the center of debate in the presidency of the newly-elected Dilma Rousseff.