Women in Brazilian History

To celebrate International Women's day and our engagement with Brazil, Dr Courtney Campbell, (Department of History) will lead a round-table discussion to explore the role of women in Brazilian History, spanning from the colonial to the modern period.

Amy Jaffa (Oxford) will discuss the multiple forms of police violence that are routinely experienced by female favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, yet repeatedly omitted from public and academic discussion. She will consider the implications that these practices may have for understandings of space, identity and resistance.  Dr Courtney Campbell (Birmingham) will present how historical women in Brazil (including fictional indigenous characters, escaped slaves, and bandits) have been continuously rewritten as their relationship to the modern Brazilian nation changed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. 

This round table celebrates both International Women's Day and Brazil Week at the University of Birmingham and we welcome all staff, students, and visitors regardless of knowledge of Brazilian or women's history. There will be ample time for questions, comments, and discussion, which we hope will lead to broader comparisons throughout history and across borders.

Please register your attendance 

Dr Camillia Cowling's (Warwick) participation will address how enslaved women and ex-slaves in Brazil filed suits for freedom and custody of their children after the passage of the Rio Branco (or 'Free Womb') Law in 1872, offering important insight into the gendered nature of gradual emancipation. Dr Fiona Macaulay (Bradford) will present on women on the Brazilian left in Brazil. Ms Adjoa Osei (Liverpool) will discuss the performance of race and national identity from 1920 until 1945. She will focus on transnational representations of the black Brazilian woman in modern performance, connecting Paris, Rio de Janeiro and New York. Amy Jaffa (Oxford) will discuss the multiple forms of police violence that are routinely experienced by female favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, yet repeatedly omitted from public and academic discussion. She will consider the implications that these practices may have for understandings of space, identity and resistance.  Dr Courtney Campbell (Birmingham) will present how historical women in Brazil (including fictional indigenous characters, escaped slaves, and bandits) have been continuously rewritten as their relationship to the modern Brazilian nation changed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.