Dear Colleagues:
The Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa is under serious threat. The Ministry of Tourism has ordered the dismissal of Antonio Herculano Lopez, the Director of the Center of Research, as well as the heads of the different research sectors, in order to dismantle the research profile of the institution.
I, and eight other colleagues, have initiated an Open Letter to the Léticia Dornelles, President of the Casa de Rui Barbosa, that we would like to ask academics to sign:https://mailchi.mp/36261d17568b/urgent-action-defend-the-fundao-casa-de-rui-barbosa?e=22b7e42077&fbclid=IwAR3RbMx47lheqKSZ13E3peNI0o6asgNAxoN4hT7_M4K8wtqfdRei5XJSHxQ
For more information, see the following articles:
We are asking only academics to sign this Open Letter in order to have a special impact. If you would like to sign, send your name, title, and institution to: James_Green@brown.edu
If you are not an academic, you can sign the petition circulating in Brazil here: https://www.change.org/p/manifesto-contra-a-exonera%C3%A7%C3%A3o-de-pesquisadores-da-funda%C3%A7%C3%A3o-casa-de-rui-barbosa?recruiter=503235530&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_message&utm_medium=whatsapp&recruited_by_id=dced4f90-e498-11e5-abbc-f9a43e07ed92&utm_content=washarecopy_20023608_pt-BR%3Av4&use_react=false&fbclid=IwAR2JU0L74zEUuIHTsKZwgUHY3C7o0AVMA-r_npQWd05tteYTAoaXTwlRkrM
A luta continua,
James N Green
Léticia Dornelles, President
Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
OPEN LETTER IN DEFENSE OF THE FUNDAÇÃO CASA DE RUI BARBOSA
We, the undersigned, scholars of Brazil working in the United States, wish to express our profound concern about the attempt to dismantle the Center for Research at the Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa through the dismissal of its director and its heads of the research sections, who in addition to being dedicated researchers are leading professionals in their areas of expertise. As specialists of Brazil who have done research at the Casa de Rui Barbosa, have attended national and international symposia organized there, or are aware of its international reputation for excellence in research and scholarship, we fear that this measure reflects the lack of support for the important work carried out by the institution under the leadership of the heads of research units who have been arbitrarily dismissed from their positions. We call for the immediate return to their posts of Antonio Herculano Lopes, Director of the Center for Research, as well as the heads of different units—Flora Süssekind, Charles Gomes, Joëlle Rouchou and José Almino de Alencar—so that they can continue to carry out their activities.
Initial Sponsors:
Amy Chazkel, Department of History, Columbia University
Barbara Weinstein, Professor of History, New York University
Bruno Carvalho, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Co-Director of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, Harvard University
Bryan McCann, Professor of History, Georgetown University
Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; President, Brazilian Studies Association
James N. Green, Professor of Brazilian History, Brown University; Executive Director, Braziliain Studies Association
Marcelo Paixão, Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas, Austin; Vice President, Brazilian Studies Association
Pedro Meiro Monteiro, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University
Sidney Chalhoub, Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, President-Elect, Brazilian Studies Association
Signatories
Alejandro Velasco, Associate Professor, New York University.
Alvaro Jarrin, Associate Professor of Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross
Ana Lúcia Araújo, Professor of History, Howard University
Andrew J. Kirkendall, Professor of History, Texas A&M University
Anna M. Klobucka, Professor of Portuguese and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Brodwyn Fischer, Professor of History, Director, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago
Celso Castilho, Associate Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
Christen A. Smith, Director, Center for Women’s & Gender Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Christopher Dunn, Professor of Brazilian Literature, Tulane University
Clélia F. Donovan, Lecturer and Portuguese Language Coordinator, University of California, Berkeley
Colin M. Snider, Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Tyler
Cristina Mehrtens, Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Eyal Weinberg, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Institute for Historical Studies at The University of Texas at Austin
Fábio de Sá e Silva, Assistant Professor of International Studies & Wick Cary Professor of Brazilian Studies, Co-Director of the Center for Brazil Studies, University of Oklahoma
Frank D. McCann, Professor of History Emeritus, University of New Hampshire
George Reid Andrews, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh
George Yudice, Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Miami
Gwen Kirkpatrick, Professor, Spanish & Portuguese, Georgetown University
Isadora Mota, Assistant Professor of Brazilian History, Princeton University
James Woodard, Professor of History, Montclair State University
Jeffrey D. Needell, Professor of History, University of Florida, Gainesville
Jerry Dávila, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
João Biehl, Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University
Kathryn Burns, Professor of History, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Kathryn Sanchez, Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Kathy Swart, Professor, Pierce College, Washington
Leila Lehnen, Associate Professor, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University
Luiz Fernando Valente, Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and Comparative Literature, Brown University.
Marc Hertzman, Associate Professor of History and Conrad Humanities Scholar
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Margaret Power, Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology
Marshall C. Eakin, Distinguished Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
Maxine L. Margolis, Professora Emerita of Anthropology, University of Florida
Misha Klein, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma
Nara Milanich, Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University
Okezi T. Otovo, Associate Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies, Florida International University
Ollie Johnson, Chair and Professor of African American Studies, Wayne State University
Patricia Pinho, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
Paula Halperin, Associate Professor of History and Cinema Studies, SUNY, Purhase
Paulina Alberto, Associate Professor of History, Spanish and Portuguese
University of Michigan
Rafael R. Ioris, Associate Professor of Latin American History, University of Denver
Rebecca Atencio, Associate Professor of Brazilian Studies, Tulane University.
Robert Gay, Professor of Sociology, Connecticut College
Roger Kittleson, Professor of History, Williams College
Sean T. Mitchell, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University, Newark
Seth Garfield, Professor, Department of History, University of Texas
Sophia Beal, Associate Professor of Portuguese, University of Minnesota
Stuart B. Schwartz, Professor of History, Yale University
Sueann Caulfield, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan
Tiffany Joseph, Associate Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Northeastern University
Vivaldo Santos, Associate Professor, Portuguese Language and Literature, Georgetown University
