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Notes From The Field - A Militarização Do Espaço Urbano Do Rio De Janeiro: Grupos Armados, Forças De Segurança E Forças Armadas E A Disputa Por Território, Thiago Sardinha

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

The Militarization of the Urban Space of Rio de Janeiro is the synthesis of different historical processes: The state through massive incarceration of black and racialized people, and the systematic elimination of black poor people from favelas through urban policing operations by security and armed forces, traffic patrols, and paramilitary/vigilante groups. Together, they result in the production of different actors that exert violent territorial domination for economic exploitation and social control.

The Domestication Of Machismo In Brazil: Motivations, Reflexivity, And Consonance Of Religious Male Gender Roles, H. J. François Dengah Ii, William W. Dressler, Ana Falcão

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The relationship between culture and the individual is a central focus of social scientific research. This paper examines motivations that mediate between shared culture norms and individual actions. Inspired by the works of Leon Festinger and Melford Spiro, we posit that social network conformation (the perceived adherence of one’s social network with norms) and internalization of cultural norms (incorporation of cultural models with the self-schema) will differentially shape behavior (cultural consonance) depending on the domain and individual characteristics. For the domain of gender roles among Brazilian men, religious affiliation results in different configurations of the individual and culture. Our findings …

Self-Perception Of Mental Health, Covid-19 And Associated Sociodemographic-Contextual Factors In Latin America, Pablo Roa, Guillermo Rosas, Gloria Isabel Niño-Cruz, Sergio Mauricio Moreno-López, Juliana Mejía-Grueso, Haney Aguirre-Loaiza, Javiera Alarcón-Aguilar, Rodrigo Reis, Adriano Akira Ferreira Hino, Fernando López, Deborah Salvo, Andrea Ramírez-Varela

Student and Faculty Publications

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of alterations in self-perceived mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and their associated factors in four Latin American countries. This is a cross-sectional study based on data collected from adults in 2021 through the Collaborative Response COVID-19 Survey by the MacDonnell Academy at Washington University in St. Louis (United States). The sample was composed of 8,125 individuals from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Chile. A generalized linear model for a binary outcome variable with a logistic link and fixed country effects was used. There were 2,336 (28.75%) individuals who considered having suffered alterations in …

Assessing Pandemic Preparedness, Response, And Lessons Learned From The Covid-19 Pandemic In Four South American Countries: Agenda For The Future, Andrea Ramírez Varela, Michael Touchton, J Jaime Miranda, Juliana Mejía Grueso, Rachid Laajaj, Gabriel Carrasquilla, Martha Vives Florez, Ana María Vesga Gaviria, Ana María Ortiz Hoyos, Esteban Orlando Vanegas Duarte, Alejandra Velásquez Morales, Nubia Velasco, Silvia Restrepo Restrepo

Student and Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic emerged in a context that lacked adequate prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) activities, and global, regional, and national leadership. South American countries were among world's hardest hit by the pandemic, accounting for 10.1% of total cases and 20.1% of global deaths.

METHODS: This study explores how pandemic PPR were affected by political, socioeconomic, and health system contexts as well as how PPR may have shaped pandemic outcomes in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. We then identify lessons learned and advance an agenda for improving PPR capacity at regional and national levels. We do this through a …

The Blind Spots Of Sociotechnical Imaginaries: Covid-19 Scepticism In Brazil, The United Kingdom And The United States, Renan Gonçalves Leonel Da Silva, Larry Au

Publications and Research

During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, experts and policymakers mobilised various slogans to compel the public to help defeat COVID-19. By comparing Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States, this study shows how dominant sociotechnical imaginaries tied to the slogans were mobilised. We argue that the blind spots of these dominant sociotechnical imaginaries contributed to subversive sociotechnical imaginaries and made room for COVID-19 scepticism. In Brazil, calls to ‘take care of yourself’ contributed to a sceptical stance that individualised responsibility. In the United Kingdom, calls to ‘protect the NHS’ contributed to sceptical accusations of whataboutism …

Agronomic Or Contentious Land Change? A Longitudinal Analysis From The Eastern Brazilian Amazon, Stephen Aldrich, Cynthia S. Simmons, Eugenio Arima, Robert T. Walker, Fernando Michelotti, Edna Castro

Department of Earth and Environmental Systems

Since 1984, nearly 1,000 people have been killed in the Brazilian Amazon due to land conflicts stemming from unequal distribution of land, land tenure insecurity, and lawlessness. During this same period, the region experienced almost complete deforestation (< 8% forest cover by 2010). Land conflict exacts a human toll, but it also affects agents’ decisions about land use, the subject of this article. Using a property-level panel dataset covering the period of redemocratization in Brazil (1984) until the privatization of long-term leases in the eastern Amazon (2010), we show that deforestation is affected by land conflict, particularly in cases of expropriation of property for agrarian reform settlement formation. Deforestation on these settlements is much greater when soils are poor for agriculture and when the land has been the object of past conflict. Deforestation and conflict are episodic, and both agronomic drivers and contentious drivers of land change are active in the region. Ultimately, the outcome of these processes of contentious and agronomic land change is substantial deforestation, regardless of who was in possession and control of the land.

The Making And Silencing Of “Axé-Ocracy” In Brazil: Black Women Writers’ Spiritual, Political And Literary Movement In São Paulo, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In this article, I will focus on two influential writers from the south of Brazil, Cristiane Sobral who currently lives in Brasília, from Rio de Janeiro, and Conceição Evaristo who currently lives in Rio de Janeiro state, from Minas Gerais. I got to know them in São Paulo in 2015 at a public event: the “Afroétnica Flink! Sampa Festival of Black Thought, Literature and Culture.” I will include references to some of their younger contemporaries such as Raquel Almeida, Jenyffer Nascimento, and Elizandra Souza, all of whom reside in São Paulo, in order to illustrate the Black Brazilian women writers’ …

Cultural Models Of Raça: The Calculus Of Brazilian Racial Identity Revisited, Henri J. François Dengah Ii, Jason A. Gilmore, Marcus Brasileiro, Anna S. Cohen, Elizabeth Bingham Thomas, Jenni Budge Blackburn, Mckayle Law, Jae Swainston, Richard Thomas

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Nearly 50 years ago, Marvin Harris published a seminal paper that examined how Brazilians create taxonomic categories of racial identity. In the intervening decades, new cognitive theories and analytical approaches have enabled researchers to investigate cultural domains with increased sophistication and nuance. In this paper, we revisit, replicate, and extend Harris’s research by utilizing modern cognitive anthropological approaches such as multidimensional scaling and cultural consensus analysis. Utilizing the same facial portraits as in the original study, we ask a contemporary sample of 34 Brazilians to identify and sort these images by racial identity. We then compare Harris’s original data, reanalyzed …

Going Beyond The "T" In "Ctc": Social Practices As Care In Community Technology Centers, David Nemer

Information Science Faculty Publications

Community technology center (CTC) is a term usually associated with facilities that provide free or affordable computer and internet access, and sometimes training, to people in underserved communities. Despite the large number of studies done on CTCs, the literature has focused primarily on the use of ICTs as the main, if not the only, activity in these centers. When it comes to addressing social concerns, the literature has often seen them as an outcome of ICT use. It does not highlight CTCs as an inherent and important social space that helps to tackle social issues. Thus, in this study, I …

Exploring Places Of Street Drug Dealing In A Downtown Area In Brazil: An Analysis Of The Reliability Of Google Street View In International Criminological Research, Elenice De Souza Oliveira, Ko-Hsin Hsu

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study assesses the reliability of Google Street View (GSV) in auditing environmental features that help create hotbeds of drug dealing in Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities. Based on concepts of “crime generators” and “crime enablers,” a set of 40 items were selected using arrest data related to drug activities for the period between 2007 and 2011. These items served to develop a GSV data collection instrument used to observe features of 135 street segments that were identified as drug dealing hot spots in downtown Belo Horizonte. The study employs an intra-class correlation (ICC) statistics as a measure …

Tools And Methods For Zika Prevention In Cachoeira, Bahia, Florence Tesha

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Zika virus, which is mainly transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, has become a major health threat in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Brazil is the country that is being most impacted with zika virus in addition to the existing mosquito-borne diseases of dengue and chikungunya. With the increase in zika virus infections, there have also been increasing numbers of infant brain abnormalities such as microcephaly associated to zika. International and local health institutions are working together to control and prevent zika transmission. This project aimed to investigate the various tools and methods employed by the Center …

The Color Of Love: Racial Features, Stigma, And Socialization In Black Brazilian Families (Book Review), Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Book review of the The Color of Love: Racial Features, Stigma, and Socialization in Black Brazilian Families by Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.

Afroreggae And Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae: A Study Of The Early Years, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

The following study of AfroReggae and Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae (GCAR) calls attention to Brazilian presence and community organizing in the field of Hip Hop studies with a long memory framework: placing AfroReggae and GCAR in a long history of Africana resistance through music in Latin America. !990s GCAR group arises when reggae and Hip Hop music had become new global forms of solidarity among urban marginalized youths worldwide, making use of old and new strategies of social healing (Fernandes 2011). A close look at lyrics from the Hip Hop fusion band and the associated nonprofit organization shape the concepts …

Transnational Brazilian Project, C. Eduardo Siqueira

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Since 2012, the Transnational Brazilian Project has been successful in organizing a transnational network of faculty, students, and community leaders to promote collaborative research and service. UMass Boston students and faculty have conducted research in Brazil, volunteered at the Brazilian Immigrant Center (BIC), and several Brazilian students gained research experience at the Mauricio Gastón Institute. In addition, a number of public health faculty from Brazil have visited UMass Boston to discuss future research projects and collaborations.

Fearless (Saturday): Michael Hannum, Michael W. Hannum

SURGE

In celebration of Alumni Homecoming Weekend and Hispanic Heritage Week, we proudly feature Michael Hannum, member of the Class of 2011, for his fearless commitment to fighting for social justice issues and his continued involvement in serving the Adams County community. Currently working with the Lincoln Intermediate Unit’s Migrant Education Program as a Recruitment Coordinator, Michael began finding his passion for helping identify families in the migrant community who need extra educational support when he was a first-year student just looking for something to do. [excerpt]

Social Equality And Environmental Education In Brazil, Sherrod Williams

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Beacon Voyages for Service (BVS) is a program within the Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement that coordinates Alternative Break programs. BVS Brazil traveled to Porto Alegre. This group of students partnered with “The Brazilian Association of Cultural Exchange (ABIC)” and the Center for Environmental Education to learn about the social problems that affect the citizens of Brazil and tackle issues of waste management. The students work alongside community members in a recycling unit and spend many hours working with local youth.

Portuguese Translation And Validation Of The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Cody S. Hollist, Olga G. Falceto, Luciane M. Ferreira, Richard B. Miller, Paul R. Springer, Carmen L. C. Fernandes, Nalu A. Nunes

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The absence of a translated and validated instrument for measuring marital satisfaction in Brazil, the largest country in South America and fifth most populous country in the world, is a significant barrier for research and mental health service delivery. The purpose of this study was to translate and validate a marital satisfaction scale into Portuguese that would have both empirical credibility and cultural relevance in Brazil. A six-step serial approach was used to simultaneously translate and culturally validate the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS). The translated instrument (RDAS-P) demonstrated good psychometric properties during field testing.

'The Earth Is Crying Out In Pains Of Childbirth': Bauxite Mining And Sustainable Rural Development In The Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Lena R. Connor

Environmental Analysis Program Mellon Student Summer Research Reports

In 2003, residents of the Serra do Brigadeiro Territory, a rural region of Southeastern Brazil in one of the few remaining patches of the Atlantic Forest, learned of a large number of bauxite concessions in their territory given by the federal government to the prominent Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA), Brazil’s largest aluminum producer. Because the region prides itself on its small-scale agriculture and its lush natural environment, the mining has been the source of much contention in the community. Introduced to the topic by the international conservation non-profit and research center, Iracambi, I spent two months in the territory …

A New Paradigm: Brazilian Catholic Eco-Justice Activism In The Neoliberal Age, Lena R. Connor

Environmental Analysis Program Mellon Student Summer Research Reports

This paper analyzes how traditional liberation theology in Brazil has been adapted in the neoliberal age to encompass ecological goals and rhetoric. In this research report, I first examine the work of prominent Brazilian ecotheologians, Ivone Gebara and Leonardo Boff. I then look into the applications of such ecological liberation theology in Catholic activism in Brazil, focusing on the role of religious advocacy in dam controversies, land reform, and mining.

The Effects Of Returns To Education On The Decision To Stay Or To Leave Secondary School?: An Empirical Study Of Brazil, Rudy Herrera Mármol

Economics Honors Projects

I use the Mincerian wage equation to estimate the returns to education in Brazil from 2002 to 2008. I then use these estimates as variables that affect the decision made by potential students of whether to stay in school for one additional year. I use annually collected household survey data (PNAD) from the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Results indicate that returns to education have an effect on every student's decision. Although the relationship is positive, my analysis suggests that students make their decision to stay or leave school based on schooling degrees rather than on individual grades.

Brazilians In The United States 1980—2007, Laird Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning Brazilians in the United States between 1980 and 2007.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The wave of migration from Brazil which began in the 1990s in all likelihood will continue into the future, economic fluctuations in the U.S. notwithstanding. In part this is due to the relatively high rates of educational attainment …

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Reducing Hiv-Related Stigma, Horizons Studies 2000 To 2007, Julie Pulerwitz, Annie P. Michaelis, Ellen Weiss, Lisanne Brown, Vaishali Sharma Mahendra

HIV and AIDS

In 1997, the Population Council initiated the Horizons Program—a decade-long USAID-funded collaboration with the International Center for Research on Women, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, PATH, Tulane University, Family Health International, and Johns Hopkins University—designing, implementing, evaluating, and expanding innovative strategies for HIV prevention and care. Horizons developed and tested ways to optimize HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs; worked to reduce stigma and improve gender-biased behaviors; and greatly expanded knowledge about the best ways to support, protect, and treat children affected by HIV and AIDS. In all its projects, Horizons strengthened the capacity of local institutions by providing support and …

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Promoting Gender Equity To Fight Hiv, Horizons Studies 1999 To 2007, Julie Pulerwitz, Annie P. Michaelis, Ellen Weiss

HIV and AIDS

In 1997, the Population Council initiated the Horizons Program—a decade-long USAID-funded collaboration with the International Center for Research on Women, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, PATH, Tulane University, Family Health International, and Johns Hopkins University—designing, implementing, evaluating, and expanding innovative strategies for HIV prevention and care. Horizons developed and tested ways to optimize HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs; worked to reduce stigma and improve gender-biased behaviors; and greatly expanded knowledge about the best ways to support, protect, and treat children affected by HIV and AIDS. In all its projects, Horizons strengthened the capacity of local institutions by providing support and …

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Understanding The Hiv Risk And Sexual Health Needs Of Men Who Have Sex With Men, Horizons Studies 2001 To 2008, Scott Geibel, Waimar Tun, Placide Tapsoba, Scott E. Kellerman

HIV and AIDS

In 1997, the Population Council initiated the Horizons Program—a decade-long USAID-funded collaboration with the International Center for Research on Women, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, PATH, Tulane University, Family Health International, and Johns Hopkins University—designing, implementing, evaluating, and expanding innovative strategies for HIV prevention and care. Horizons developed and tested ways to optimize HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs; worked to reduce stigma and improve gender-biased behaviors; and greatly expanded knowledge about the best ways to support, protect, and treat children affected by HIV and AIDS. In all its projects, Horizons strengthened the capacity of local institutions by providing support and …

Sexuality And Persons With Down Syndrome. A Study From Brazil, Bruna Marques Bononi, Maria José Carvalho Sant'anna, André Chao Vasconcellos De Oliveira, Tadeu Silveira Renattini, Carla Franchi Pinto, Maria Lúcia Passarelli, Verônica Coates, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

In recent years, important gains and changes have been observed in the life of teenagers with Down syndrome (DS) with increased inclusion into society. This review will discuss adolescence and sexuality in teenagers with DS from a descriptive study of 50 patients with DS between the ages of 10 and 20 years. The mean age was 13.5 years, 50% females; 86% went to school with 62.2% in school for over six years. Of the patients that attended school, 60% went to special education school and only 10% read and wrote correctly. In an evaluation of autonomy, 66% took showers, 78% …

Religion And The Politics Of Ethnic Identity In Bahia, Brazil (Book Review), Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Stephen Selka investigates the role of religion in encouraging, or discouraging, the formation of black identity in Bahia, the Brazilian state that is regarded as the center of Afro-Brazilian culture, religion, and politics. As he strives to understand and theorize the crucial, but complex, relationship between religion and what he terms "Afro-Brazilian identity," Selka describes how adherents of the three primary religious trends in Bahia (Catholicism, Candomble, and evangelical Protestantism) view the effects of their religious institutions on the construction of that identity. This question is addressed through selected quotes from leaders and members of the respective religious groups (and …

(Review) After Life: An Ethnographic Novel, Robert Gay

Sociology Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "After Life: An Ethnographic Novel," by Tobias Hecht.

Ethnoracial Land Restitution: Finding Indians And Fugitive Slave Descendants In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This chapter considers how a desire for land and development can lead to a refashioning of ethnoracial identities and identifications. Debates in development studies have centered on culture as an impediment to development. I turn that debate on its head and argue that new assertions of cultural particularity have in certain settings advanced the equity goals of development. The chapter explores the contrasting responses of two neighbouring communities of related African descended, mixed race rural workers who over a 25-year period (1975- 2000), under new laws, were recognized and given land by the Brazilian government. One was identified as an …

Gay And Lesbian Studies In Brazil: A Field In Construction, Berenice Bento

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Traditionally, sexuality studies in Brazil have been organized around ideas of normalization. Specialists in the field have been trained to observe and comment on behaviours that did not conform to the imperatives of heterosexuality. Gender was polarized and hierarchical, and gained meaning from the idea of separate, complementary sexes. Heterosexuality gave meaning to human existence and reproduction, and every other kind of sexual expression was measured according to the rule of heteronormativity.

Assessment Of Risk Factors For Hiv Infection Among Men Who Have Sex With Men In The Metropolitan Area Of Campinas City, Brazil, Using Respondent-Driven Sampling, Maeve De Mello, Adriana De Araujo Pinho, Magda Chinaglia, Waimar Tun, Aristides Barbosa Junior, Maria Cristina, F.J. Ilario, Paulo Reis, Regina C.S. Salles, Suzanne Westman, Juan Diaz

HIV and AIDS

The Population Council, in collaboration with the Brazil Ministry of Health, the Municipal Program of STD/AIDS of Campinas, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Global AIDS Program/Brazil, conducted a study to characterize the sociodemographic, behavioral, and environmental factors associated with subgroups of MSM who are most at risk for HIV infection. This research is the first Brazilian study to provide population-based estimates for HIV, syphilis, and HIV-related risk behaviors using an innovative sampling technique to reach members of the target population. Our data suggest the importance for HIV prevention programs to address not only sexual risk reduction, but …