Date:  Friday 2 November 2012

Time:  2-part session from 10:00-12:00 and 14:00-16:00, followed by a Brazilian inspired
reception hosted by the Embassy

Location:  University of Pretoria Hatfield Campus

Venue:  Council Chambers in the Rectorate, Level 4, Administration Building

RSVP by Wednesday 31 October, [email protected].  Seats are limited.

An academic seminar and discussion presented by Dr Angélica Madeira and Dr Mariza Veloso, University of Brasília. The seminar aims to present central aspects of the Brazilian cultural formation, in which the mixture of different influences - from indigenous people, the Portuguese colonizer, African forced migration and other European and Asian immigrants - had a pivotal role. The presentation of this historical process intends to stimulate a critical debate on the role of culture and the formation of national identity.

Angélica Madeira and Mariza Veloso are teachers and researchers in the Department of Sociology at the University of Brasília and at Rio Branco Institute, M.R.E. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Angelica Madeira holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies from the University of Paris VII, Jussieu, and completed a postdoctoral work at Columbia University, New York. She is an associate researcher in the department of Sociology at University of Brasilia, and teaches Brazilian Literature and Culture at Instituto Rio Branco, M.R.E. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). She is the author of Livro dos naufrágios: ensaio sobre a História Trágico-marítima (2005- Sérgio Buarque de Holanda Prize), and with Mariza Veloso, Leituras Brasileiras: itinerários no pensamento intelectual e na literatura (1999). Her most recent book A itinerância dos artistas (Itinerary of the artists) (on print) is on the relationship between Aesthetics and Politics and analyses flux of artists in the capital-city:Brasília. Research interest in contemporary art and urban culture; trandisciplinary method (Sociology, Literature and History).

Mariza Veloso holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Brasília and completed a postdoctoral work at New York University. She teaches and researches in the department of Sociology at University of Brasília and at Instituto Rio Branco – M.R.E. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). She is the author, with Angélica Madeira, of Leituras Brasileiras: itinerários no pensamento social e na literatura (1999). She also published articles and chapters in academic journals. She recent published “Arte Publica e cidade” na coletânea A sociologia das artes visuais no Brasil (ed. Senac, 2012) Her most recent research is on sociology of culture, public art and historical heritage; as well as in Sociology of Education, holding a comparative research between Portugal and Brazil on High Studies in State careers.