University of São Paulo: USP Pensa Brasil will discuss urgent issues in the country
“A way for the University to dialogue as an institution on central Brazilian issues.” This is how the vice-rector of USP, Professor Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, defines the USP Pensa Brasil event , which will take place from August 29 to September 2 at the Biblioteca Brasiliana Guita e José Mindlin (BBM), in Cidade Universitária, in Sao Paulo. For a week, the event will bring together professors and researchers from the University and other institutions to discuss emerging issues in the country.
Conceived by Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, the program was designed to increasingly encourage the University’s participation in public debate, discussing major national themes, as well as disseminating the knowledge produced in the academy.
In addition to contemporary issues, the event will present USP’s production on the centenary of the Week of Modern Art and the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil, celebrated in 2022. As Professor Maria Arminda says, in an interview published on August 9 in Jornal da USP , at a time when there is a “civilizational tragedy” in the country, the University promotes this event to bring the central issues of Brazil into dialogue and return to the past, not always with institutional characteristics, through people who think about national projects.
According to professor Alexandre Saes, curatorial coordinator of the event, in addition to thinking about contemporary issues, the conjuncture and the great current challenges, the event brings two ephemeris – the centenary of the Week of Modern Art and the bicentennial of Independence – for debate as themes which also stimulate reflection on national sovereignty and the country’s modernity.
“The proposal, which began to be built in the first months of this year, is to bring about a great debate on the national conjuncture, also bringing together the various efforts of what was being produced in different USP institutes”, says Saes, citing publications, seminars, production of the most diverse content, such as teaching materials, books and exhibitions about the historical landmarks of 22, the Week of Modern Art and the bicentennial of Independence.
Among the many activities of the week, the professor highlights the seminar USP Pensa Brasil , in the evening, from 6 pm to 10:30 pm, which, according to him, will show “the importance of the University not only in the production of content – evidently, the University is extremely recognized nationally and internationally in the production of content”, she emphasizes –, “but also in the aspect of connecting it in these broader debates on the agenda of the country today”.
In the preparatory meetings, says the professor, “it was much discussed that there is a tradition in our Brazilian social thought, which is of the interpretations of Brazil, of the critical thinking that problematizes the structures of our society, and that this critical thinking could mobilize the constitution of this great seminar. And this seminar is part of this proposal to try to reformulate these interpretations of Brazil and put the great agendas in debate”. Every day, the themes of the seminar are opened with a conference by a renowned specialist in the area, linked to USP, followed by debates with researchers from other institutions and members of social movements.