"...some academic units [that]...would try to get King's away from a focus that was seen [to be concentrated on] the UK, Europe and North America, but not really including parts of the world like Latin America or Africa, and parts of Asia that really should be included given the increasing multilateralism, increasing globalisation and the growth of the non-West or non-core countries."
Professor Anthony Pereira
10 September 2020
Introducing a new Director for the King's Brazil Institute
The Brazil Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Director, Dr Vinicius de Carvalho
At the beginning of September Professor Anthony Pereira stepped down from his position as Director of the King’s Brazil Institute. Pereira, who led the Institute for ten years, is replaced by Dr Vinicius de Carvalho, Senior Lecturer in the King’s War Studies Department and long-time member of the Institute.
Under Professor Pereira’s leadership the Brazil Institute has grown to become an active and engaged community of academics and researchers able to provide expert analysis on Brazilian affairs – a valuable resource to policy-makers, businesses, international organisations and the media.
Speaking on the establishment of the Institute alongside other global institutes, Pereira said the intention was to create:
While the Brazil Institute’s teaching covers politics and economics it also pioneered – from its inception - the study of Brazilian culture and history and Pereira has fond memories of many cultural exchanges between Brazilians and the Institute, both at King’s and in Brazil itself.
According to both Professor Pereira and Dr de Carvalho the overarching objective of the Institute has always been to build a bridge between Brazil and the UK, allowing King’s to bring people across to the UK from Brazil and vice versa, getting people together to foster shared learning, collaboration and interdisciplinarity.
De Carvalho intends to strengthen this narrative during his tenure as Director by “assur[ing] that people would continue to cross this bridge, that this bridge would continuously be used and would be treated as a platform that promotes both Brazil and the UK, and the UK in Brazil”.
Turning to the Brazil Institute’s priorities for the next few years, Dr de Carvalho hopes it will be able to address important global issues such as decolonising the curriculum, promoting inclusivity and supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement as it develops in Brazil. At the same time, it will continue to focus on Brazilian environmental issues, particularly the protection of the Amazonian region and the promotion of indigenous knowledge.
Watch the video below for a 15 minute interview with Dr Vinicius de Carvalho and Professor Anthony Pereira, during which they they expand on the history of the Brazil Institute, drawing on their personal highlights from the past ten years before taking us through their plans and priorities for the future.
In this story
Reader in Brazilian and Latin American Studies
Professor of Brazilian Studies