Latinxs hiding heterogeneity – Unification shadows contemporary issues: the Brazilian scientific diaspora under a far-right extremist government

10:30am-12pm

Presenter: Dr. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho

Session Type: Panel Discussion

Topic: Identities and intersectionality

Recording

Description

There is an urge to evidencing heterogeneity of intersectionalities at a time we still fight to unify and sediment the concept of Latinx identity. What does it mean to be an academic latinx in the US? We will use the current Brazilian scientific diaspora example to highlight the “diversity in the diverse realities” people from Latin America face and how to insert and update the new unforeseen pieces that add to the complexity and risks of overseen heterogeneity.

Facilitator

Dr. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho

University of Pittsburgh, Urban Studies Program

rmdecarvalho@pitt.edu

Dr. Roberta Mendonça De Carvalho is a faculty at the Urban Studies Program of the University of Pittsburgh and affiliated faculty in the Center of Latin American Studies. She is proudly born and raised in the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon - Belém, Pará. She completed her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Florida, researching urbanization in the Amazon. She is committed to updating the Amazon profile to include cities in the environmental and social discussions and to support local Amazonian scientists. Her research embraces urbanization as a worldwide process, merging global to local perspectives. In our urban world, she believes that cities are one of the solutions for humanity to thrive. She considers herself as part of the recent scientific academic Brazilian diaspora.

Panelist

Dr. Claudio Szlafzstein

Professor, Federal University of Pará, Brazil

Dr. Claudio Fabian Szlafzstein is a full professor at the Center for Advanced Amazon Studies at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). He has experience in land use planning and planning, coastal Management, Management, disaster risk, vulnerability analysis, and climate change adaptation. At UFPA, he has worked as the Coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Management of Natural Resources in the Amazon, General Director of the Environment Center, Dean of International Relations, at UFPA Director of International Relations. He is a visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 2021-22, affiliate with the Canter for Latin American Studies and Urban Studies.