Conference at Rice University to look at Brazil as a model for affirmative-action policies in Latin America

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Conference at Rice University to look at Brazil as a model for affirmative-action policies in Latin America

HOUSTON – (Feb. 25, 2013) – Leading American and Brazilian scholars will gather at Rice University March 5 for a conference on “Beyond Multiculturalism? Brazil as a Model for Affirmative-Action Policies in Latin America.”

Who: Leading American and Brazilian scholars in the fields of anthropology, government, history and sociology.

What: Conference on “Beyond Multiculturalism? Brazil as a Model for Affirmative-Action Policies in Latin America.”

When: Tuesday, March 5, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: Rice University, Fondren Library, Kyle Morrow Room, 6100 Main St.

According to conference organizers, in the past few years Brazil has implemented trailblazing, yet controversial, affirmative-action policies that have turned attention to racial discrimination and exclusion in the country’s political, economic and educational spheres. The conference will examine the historical trajectory of race-based policies in Brazil, affirmative action vis-à-vis multiculturalism as a model for racial justice in Brazil and the United States, the extent of everyday violence and racial exclusion in rural black Brazilian communities and affirmative action as a way of reclaiming a “birthright” for Afro-Brazilians.

The conference is free and open to the public and hosted by Rice’s Humanities Research Center, Americas Research Center, the Dean of Humanities and Race Scholars at Rice, a program of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research. For more information, including the full conference agenda, see http://hrc.rice.edu/hrcconferences. For a Rice University map and parking information, visit rice.edu/parking.

Members of the news media who want to attend should RSVP to Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

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About Jeff Falk

Jeff Falk is director of national media relations in Rice University's Office of Public Affairs.