Event Highlights: Perspectives from the Further South
This presentation – Perspectives from the Further South: Racial (In)justice in Brazil – by Fernanda Vieira, Visiting Researcher in Boston University’s Department of Romance Studies and a PhD candidate in Literature Studies at Rio de Janeiro State University – UERJ, took place on Friday, June 26, 2020. It was hosted by the Center for Latin American Studies and moderated by Rodrigo Lopes de Barros, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Boston University.
In response to recent protests in the US and around the world in support of Black Lives Matter, Fernanda Vieira discussed the complex history of race and social justice in Brazil and the ongoing genocide of the Black and Indigenous populations. Brazilian necropolitics, she argued, have become more and more evident, bringing attention to a long history of inequality and racial prejudice. Brazilian racism, she explained, is multi-layered and deeply embedded in social structures.
Fernanda Vieira is Founder of IKAMIABA. Presently, she is researching the auto-ethnographies of indigenous women and how these writings help decolonize Brazilian identities. Her focus on indigenous women writings is both an academic and political choice, especially considering the recent turn of events in Brazil. Vieira herself is of mixed-race and indigenous background and is an indigenous and LGBTQ+ activist in Brazil.