Celebrate Amazonia: Brazilian Carnival on Campus: 25-28 February 2025
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The University of Birmingham Brazil Institute (UBBI) Carnaval on Campus!
UBBI is hosting a Brazilian Carnaval celebration from the 25 - 28 February 2025 to celebrate our place on our planet, the potential to mitigate climate change, our research and engagement on diverse global challenges, and the Brazilian community residing in the Midlands.
Through our Carnaval celebration, we celebrate, adding an important cultural component to Engage Amazonia, offering local ways to engage for our staff, students, and the general public.
Find out about our exciting events across the week below and don’t miss the official launch of Celebrate Amazonia on Wednesday 26th February! Sign up on Celebrate Amazonia Eventbrite
To find our events, have a look at the University of Birmingham's campus map!
All Week
All Week
Old Joe turns Green!
Our iconic clock tower will be lit up green to mark the occasion. Look to Old Joe on campus between the 25 - 28 February |
Celebrate Amazonia Carnival Week Book Display
Location: Main Library Foyer
Throughout Celebrate Amazonia Week, pop into the Main Library Foyer to borrow books and access e-resources to expand your reading on Brazil. All the print books on the display are available for you to borrow immediately, or scan the QR codes to access e-books and e-resources. |
Lapworth Museum
The Lapworth Museum will hold a special exposition for Brazil week!
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Tuesday 25 February
Tuesday 25 February
Deforestation, Primates and Re-creating the Wild Activity with Julia Myatt
10:00 - 12:00, Muirhead Tower 420
In this session with Julia Myatt you will look at some of the impacts of deforestation on primates around the globe and consider the role of captivity to support their conservation, drawing on research undertaken by scientists in the School of Biosciences. You will have the opportunity to see if you can design your own enclosure suitable to support the health and wellbeing of primates for future generations.
Deforestation has devastating effects on primates globally, particularly in parts of South America, Asia and Africa. Primates are particularly sensitive to deforestation because they rely on trees for food (fruits, leaves, and insects) and shelter. The destruction of habitats due to logging, agricultural expansion and infrastructure projects displaces countless primate species, or forces them to adapt to a new way of life. Deforestation in places such as Brazil, home to the Amazon rainforest, has led to isolated and fragmented primate groups, reduced genetic diversity and increased their risks from poaching and human-wildlife conflict. Conservation efforts, both in their natural environment and in captive environments around the world are essential to ensure the survival of these vital species. |
Art and Activism Exposition and Language Café
13:00 - 15:30, The Bramall Top Floor
Go and see our student led art exhibition in the Bramall, with a focus on climate change in Brazil and other South American countries!
You can also get involved in our student led language café! Are you passionate about learning Portuguese and Spanish? Join us at our language café at the Bramall on campus, where you’ll immerse yourself in a fun environment to practice led by the Latin American Student Society! Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to enhance your Portuguese and Spanish language skills, make new friends, and explore different cultures. |
Diversity Drives Innovation: Connecting Purpose-Driven Professionals in Sustainability
15:00 - 17:30, Elm House 351 Bristol Road
Can we be innovative in sustainability without the perspectives and experiences that diverse voices bring to the table? Find out more in the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA) Business Engagement Event here!
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Virtual Forest Escape Room
15:30 - 16:30, Engineering (Y8) 229
Take a Walk Amongst Time Travelling Trees led by Samantha Dobbie (by Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, BIFoR)
During this immersive activity, we invite you to join us on a virtual tour of BIFoR FACE (Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment). Working in small groups you will find out more about the research that is happening in our forest laboratory. Participants will work together to uncover clues and solve puzzles, using virtual reality headsets and/ or touch screen devices. By completing our ‘escape-room style activities’ you will gain a sense of the scale of the BIFoR FACE site, a better understanding of the measurements we are taking and a deeper awareness of the impact of climate change on our woodlands and forests. This hands-on activity is ideal for specialist and non-specialist audiences who would like a brief overview of the research happening at BIFoR FACE, with plenty of time for questions along the way.
Ages: 12+ |
Augmented Reality Music Ensemble VR Demo with Hugo Carvalho
16:45 - 17:45, Muirhead Tower 420
The ARME (Augmented Reality Music Ensemble) Project aims to understand how musicians synchronise with each other and develop a computational model that can replicate their behaviour. This will enable the creation of a music training tool where realistic virtual musicians can perform alongside the user. In this demonstration, participants will have the opportunity to experience the current stage of the project’s development, interacting with avatars and trying our model for synchronisation among performers. The core development and experimentation take place primarily in the University of Birmingham's Virtual Reality Lab, a state-of-the-art facility open to researchers and students interested in advancing AR and VR technologies. Perhaps we can, in future Carnivals, perform alongside a virtual Escola de Samba?! |
Wednesday 26 February
Wednesday 26 February
Film Viewing of Semeando Sociobioeconomias and Discussion with Filmmaker, Priscila Tapajowara
11:00 - 12:00, Muirhead Tower G15
What does socio-bioeconomy look like on the ground? We invite you to explore this new film by Nature4Climate and If Not Us Then Who?, created in collaboration with The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and filmed in Oiapoque, Brasília, and São Paulo, showcasing the efforts of Indigenous and local communities, such as Uasei Açaí, who are driving this change.
If Not Us then Who? is a charity that supports a global awareness campaign highlighting the role indigenous and local peoples play in protecting our planet. They work in partnership with communities to make films, take photographs, curate content, commission local artists and host events. Their work and films aims to build lasting networks, target unjust policies, and advocate for greater rights for indigenous and local peoples to bring about positive social change. |
Official Opening of ‘Celebrate Amazonia’ Brazilian Carnaval on Campus
13:30 - 15:30, Guild Underground
Learn about our multidisciplinary Engage Amazonia 2025 programme and the opportunities available through the UBBI, BISCA and BIFoR to support educational and research collaboration with the Amazon region in the run up to COP30.
Dr Courtney Campbell and Dr Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, Academic Co-Directors of the University of Birmingham Brazil Institute (UBBI)
Engage Amazonia: The Role of Academia to Bring Solutions to Global Challenges Panel and Discussion
The Amazonian region is home to 30 million people of 350 ethnic groups and to the largest and most diverse tropical forest on the Planet. It has fundamental contribution to mitigate global change but faces huge challenges with the acceleration of climate change, deforestation, land conflicts and the historic poverty. Join us for an engaging opening debate with leading experts from Brazil and Birmingham in biodiversity, sustainability and climate change!
Chair: Professor Robin Mason, Pro Vice-Chancellor International
Expert panel:
Mariana Vale is a Professor of Ecology at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. She holds a PhD in ecology from Duke University, USA. She is a member of several international bodies, including: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the Coalition for Pandemic Prevention. Prof. Vale works on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the tropics, with a conservation biogeography approach, and a focus on the impacts of climate change and deforestation in South America’s rainforests and on its fauna. With the onset of COVID-19, Prof. Vale began working on, and advocating for, pandemic prevention through environmental protection. Prof. Vale is our first UBBI-CAPES Chico Mendes Chair and is at Birmingham with her research team until July.
David Hannah is Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Sustainability), Professor of Hydrology in the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences and Director of the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action. He is Chair-holder for the UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and is a member of the Centre for Environmental Research and Justice (CERJ). David’s long-term vision is to understand water cycle processes, hydrological events (flood, drought, water quality ) and water-related impacts under climate and other drivers of change. With Birmingham colleagues and external stakeholders, he launched a COP26 report targeting national and international policy makers - Keeping 1.5°C Alive at a House of Lords roundtable event in May 2022. To mark COP28 in November 2023, he led a new report on Adaptation and Building Resilience in a Changing World for which significant policy, media and societal impact and engagement were captured (including 230 pieces of press coverage with potential reach of 596M people).
Flávia Costa is a researcher at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA, Manaus), where she also developed her doctoral thesis in the Ecology Program. She is a biologist and holds a master's degree (Environmental Sciences) from the University of São Paulo. She has been working in the Amazon for 25 years, developing research in Plant Ecology, with a focus on historical ecology, functional ecology and forest dynamics, to understand how human actions have changed the Amazon forests in the past, are changing in the present and the consequences for the future. The largest interest at the moment is to understand the functioning of forests with shallow water table, to determine if they can act as refuges for biodiversity and ecosystem services as drought conditions become more frequent due to climate change.
She is an indigenous filmmaker from the Amazon biome, born in the ancestral territory of the Tapajó people, Santarém, Pará. She is the General Coordinator of the Midia Indigena collective and Vice-President of the InstitutoTerritório das Artes. She was chosen by EFE and Sanchamama as one of the 100 Latinos most committed to climate action in 2023 and 2024. Since 2013 she has been documenting the struggle and culture of indigenous peoples through photography, graduating in 2018 in Audiovisual Production from FAPCOM College in Sao Paulo. Since then, she has worked as a Director and Director of Photography in films such as ‘Ãgawaraitá e Os Warao de Upaon-Açu’, ‘Javyju - bom dia’ and ‘Arapyau: Primavera Guarani’.
Carina Calabria is a leading human rights scholar in Brazil and a recognised expert in the fields of Sociology of Justice and International Law, having collaborated with the UN, the IACtHR and the STF/CNJ in Brazil. She holds an LL.M (University of Brasília, UnB) and a PhD in Law (University of Manchester, UoM) and is currently a senior researcher at the Law School of the Federal University of Pernambuco (FDR/UFPE). |
Join Us to Debate the ‘Big Questions’ Linked to Key Global Challenges with Researchers
15:30 - 17:00, Guild Underground
Debate the ‘Big Questions’ organized around key global challenges. Engage in conversational spaces with key experts in the field. These will be led and organized by researchers and students across campus, so get involved!
Questions include:
If you have any questions on these topics, add them to the padlet here! |
Celebrate Amazonia Drinks Reception, with Capoeira Performance, Music by Oyá Batucada Samba Band and Samba Dancers!
17:30 - 20:00, Guild Underground
Connect with colleagues to celebrate Amazonia, Brazilian culture and music, with music by Oyá, capoeira by the Brazilian Cultural Centre, and dancers from Samba Dance Birmingham. |
Thursday 27 February
Thursday 27 February
Engage Amazonia 2025 Funding Opportunities for Staff and Students: Information Session
11:00 - 12:00, Muirhead Tower 121
Come along to learn more about the funded opportunities available to students and staff through Engage Amazonia 2025. Academics and students from all disciplines with an interest in the region are encouraged to attend. The UBBI is delighted to launch ‘Engage Amazonia 2025’, a multidisciplinary programme designed to build long-term connections between students and researchers from Birmingham and the Amazonian State of Pará. Join UBBI Academic Co-Director, Dr Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, and Dr Deyvison Medrado, Scientific Director at Fundação Amazônia de Amparo a Estudos e Pesquisas – FAPESPA, our funding partner in Pará, to learn more about the exciting opportunities available, including:
Open to Birmingham academics and researchers based in the Amazonian state of Pará to seed research collaborations in any discipline linked to Amazon challenges. Project activity to take place between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2026.
Focusing on interdisciplinary, challenge-led learning, student participants from Birmingham and Brazil will take part in an immersive experience into global challenges and solutions. The fully funded field school will take place in the Amazonian state of Pará and will have an immersive component in the Ferreira Penna Scientific Station (ECFPn) research base located in the Caxiuanã National Forest, in the heart of the Amazon forests.
Funded by the British Council International Science Partnerships Fund, this is a joint collaboration between the UBBI, the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA), the Birmingham Institute for Forestry Research (BIFoR) and the Global Health Impact Hub. It will support three fully-funded Early Career Fellowships for researchers from the Legal Amazon/Amazônia Legal universities and research centres to spend the 2025-2026 academic year at UoB, working with an academic host in one of the following research areas:
Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration of Natural Capital Health Systems in the Amazon
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Book Launch of 'Energy, Poverty and Justice in the Brazilian Amazon' with Lira Luz Benites Lazaro
12:00 - 13:00, BioSciences NG08
Lira Luz Benites Lazaro will be launching and discussing material from her just-published book, Energy Poverty, Justice, and Gender in Latin America (Lazaro et al, eds, Springer), which addresses challenges of energy access, inequality, and justice in the region, with a particular focus on gender dynamics.
While there has been substantial progress in electrification in the last decade, millions of people in Latin America - especially women and marginalized communities - continue to face unreliable and unaffordable energy, exacerbating social and economic inequalities. Through a critical and interdisciplinary lens, the book unpacks the structural injustices embedded in Latin America's energy transition and calls for inclusive policies that prioritize those most affected by energy poverty.
In this seminar, Lira will focus on energy poverty and justice in the Brazilian Amazon, specifically the Lower Oiapoque River region. The discussion will explore the complex relationship between energy access and socio-environmental factors in remote Indigenous communities, where renewable energy solutions have the potential to improve daily life, especially for women, and yet despite the region’s vast potential, many of its inhabitants continue to face severe energy and economic poverty. Lira’s work highlights the contradictions behind energy exclusion in a resource-rich region and underlines the urgent need for integrated, community-driven solutions that use local resources while promoting equity, sustainability and social justice. This will be followed by coffee and cake!
Lira is a visiting academic from the University of Sao Paulo, to the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES), supported by a fellowship from the UoB Brazil Institute. |
Film Screening in discussion with journalist Ayla Tapajós
14:00 - 16:00, Muirhead Tower G15
An exposition of short films by If Not Us Then Who? on indigenous communities in the Amazon, accompanied with a discussion by staff. If Not Us Then Who? is a charity that supports a global awareness campaign highlighting the role indigenous and local peoples play in protecting our planet. They work in partnership with communities to make films, take photographs, curate content, commission local artists and host events. Their work and films aims to build lasting networks, target unjust policies, and advocate for greater rights for indigenous and local peoples to bring about positive social change.
Ayla Tapajós is an indigenous woman of the Tapajó and Arapiun, from Baixo Tapajós, Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon. She holds an undergraduate degree in Social Communication – Journalism and is currently a master's student in Human Rights and Citizenship at the University of Brasília (UnB) and in Sociology at the University of Évora (UE/Portugal). Ayla researches conflicts and impacts of gold mining through mercurial contamination in the body-territory of indigenous women in the Amazon and transitional justice for indigenous peoples in Brazil. She is a member of the Association of Indigenous Women Suraras do Tapajós and the Brazilian Articulation of Indigenous Journalists (Abrinjor).
Films:
“We are Here to Defend the Environment” – Jurandie Siridiwe Xavante – Xavante People
Titko: The Epic Harvest of Brazil Nuts by the Wai Wai in the Amazon
The Women Behind Baniwa Jiquitaia Pepper
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Tree Measurement Activity
16:00 - 17:00, Meet at Muirhead Tower 112
How Thirsty are Trees? Led by Samantha Dobbie
During this hands-on activity, we invite you to join us as a BIFoR Forest Researcher. Participants will work together to carry out field work, exploring key features of trees, with a focus on water uptake. You will also have the chance to install your own tree growth (dendrometer) band. By completing our activities you will gain a sense of the research happening at BIFoR FACE, (Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment), a better understanding of the measurements we are taking and a deeper awareness of the impact of climate change on our woodlands and forests. This hands-on activity is ideal for specialist and non-specialist audiences who would like a brief overview of the research happening at BIFoR FACE and an introduction to our citizen science project, BIFoR in a Box, with plenty of time for questions along the way.
Ages: 14+ |
Forró Dance Session
17:00 - 19:00, The Guild Amos Room
Join our Forró dance class and have fun! Meet new people, improve your skills, and enjoy a great workout! Come dance with us whether you're a beginner or advanced! This session is by Forro Birmingham, find out more here. |
Friday 28 February
Friday 28 February
Threatened Tropical Ecosystems Seminar Series Day 1: Water, Climate and the Future of the Amazon Basin
10:00 - 12:00, Engineering (Y8) 330
Guest Speakers:
Dr Flávia Costa is a researcher at the National institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA, Manaus), working in the Amazon for almost 30 years, developing research in Plant Ecology, with a focus on historical ecology, functional ecology and forest dynamics, to understand how human actions have changed the Amazon forests in the past, are changing in the present and the consequences for the future.
Dr Filipe França is a Future Leaders Fellow and senior lecturer at the University of Bristol (UK) and Federal University of Pará (Brazil). He is the PI of the TropEco Lab, which focuses on understanding the drivers and consequences of biodiversity changes in tropical forests, and engaging with diverse stakeholders to co-produce knowledge and recommendations for conservation practice and environmental policy.
Dr Polyanna Bispo is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester (UK) with expertise in the use of forest ecology and remote sensing to understand forest dynamics, disturbances, recovery, and the impacts of environmental changes on forest structure in the tropics. She is the UK PI of the Amazonian BioTechQuilombo project - Amazonian Biodiversity, Technology Assessment, and Knowledge Exchange with Quilombos - as part of the Amazonia +10 Initiative. She is also Co-I on the CIDAR (Convective-Scale Impacts of Deforestation on Amazonian Rainfall) project.
Dr Bruno B L Cintra is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, interested in assessing the vulnerability of forests to global changes. He focuses on the use of forest monitoring, tree rings and stable isotopes for tree ecology and climate studies. Bruno is experienced with a range of tropical forest ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforests and seasonally dry tropical forests from Brazil.
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Samba Dance Session
14:00 - 16:00, The Guild Debating Hall
Join our vibrant Samba dance lessons, conducted by Samba Dance Birmingham, here on campus! Whether you're a beginner or advanced dancer, our expert instructors will help you have fun while discovering the excitement of Brazilian music and movement in just one session! |
Carnaval across Birmingham!
Carnaval across Birmingham!
Viva Brasil Carnaval 2025
Saturday 1 March, 19:30 - 23:00, Corks Club, Alcester Road, Kings Heath, B14 6DT
Tickets available from trybooking.com
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