Lemann Institute

People

Staff

Mary Paula Arends-Kuenning , Director Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies

MArends

 Mary Arends-Kuenning is Interim Director of the Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois.  She is an economic demographer who focuses on household decisions.  Her research areas include children's schooling and child labor, household consumption, and international migration.  She began doing research on Brazil in 1992 as part of her dissertation at the University of Michigan.  Her work on Brazil has been published in World Development, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and as book chapters.  This work is often cited in World Bank and United Nations publications and by researchers. 

Brigitte Cairus, Program Coordinator Lemann Institute for Brazilian Studies

Bridgitte

Brigitte Grossmann Cairus is a Brazilian-Canadian PhD candidate at York University focusing on Modern Latin American Cultural History. Her dissertation focuses on modern Brazilian Gypsy/Romanie culture, identity, material culture, migration, politics and religiosity between 1936 and 2007. She earned her M.A. in History at York University (Toronto, Canada) and her B.A. in Fine Arts at the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. In Brazil Brigitte was the co-owner, designer and production manager of Ariadne Tapetes Artesanais, a carpet factory in Minas Gerais, Brazil (1996-2002). In Canada Brigitte was the coordinator of CERLAC’s Brazilian Studies Seminar at York University (2008-09), the Vice President of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce - BCCC in Toronto (2009-10), Associate Course Director to the 2011 Summer Course on Refugee Issues at the Centre for Refugees Studies and a executive member at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean - CERLAC - York University.

Jerry Dávila, Lemann Chair in History

Davila.

Jerry Dávila is Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Brazilian History at the University of Illinois. He is the author  of Hotel Trópico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization (Duke, 2010), recipient of the 2012 LASA Brazil Section Book Award, and of Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945 (Duke, 2003).  Both books examine the role of racial thought in shaping Brazilian public policy.  In 2000, Dávila taught as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of São Paulo, and in 2005, he held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro.  He has also received the National Enowment for the Humanities Fellowship and the Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship. His forthcoming book Dictatorship in South America (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) examines experiences with military rule in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. In December 2012 Jerry Davila has been elected vice-president and president-elect of the Conference on Latin American History, an affiliate of the AHA and an organization representing 1,100 Latinamericanist historians.  Jerry will be serving a four-year term in the various leadership capacities, stewarding this important organization into the future.

Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Lemann Distinguished Visitor

Spring 2013

marques

Dr. Júlio César Bicca-Marques is Full Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. He has a B.Sc. in Biology from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1986), a M.Sc. in Ecology from the University of Brasília (1991) and a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2000). He teaches ecology, conservation biology, animal behavior, primatology and scientific writing and conducts research on non-human primates. He is also a Research Fellow of the Brazilian National Research Council, Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology/UIUC, member of the Primate Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and of several Brazilian primate- and conservation-related committees, consultant for many Brazilian and international funding agencies, editor and member of the editorial board of four international journals, and referee of many international and Brazilian journals. From 1991 to 1993, he worked for the Brazilian Government at the Brazilian Environmental Protection Agency (IBAMA) and the Ministry of the Environment. He taught courses in Ecology at the Federal University of Acre from 1993 to 1995 and The Biological Bases of Human Behavior at UIUC in 1999. He was President of the Brazilian Primatological Society (2003-2004) and Director of the Graduate Program in Zoology/PUCRS (2007-2011) and has published almost 100 scientific papers and book chapters and edited two books. In 2012 he was awarded in the 3rd Ecofuturo Prize Education for Sustainability, Brazil.

 

Carlos R. Azzoni, Lemann Distinguished Visitor

Fall 2012

Azzoni

Carlos R. Azzoni is Full Professor of Economics at the University of São Paulo, with M. S. and Ph. D. from that university. He was chairman of the Department of Economics, associate dean and dean of the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting of USP. He was Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Ohio State University and University of Illinois. His area of research is regional inequality. He has chaired the Regional Planning Division of the State of Sao Paulo Secretary of Planning for 7 years. He has published 7 books (Portuguese) and over 50 scientific papers, both in Brazilian and international refereed academic journals. He has worked as consultant for many Brazilian and International organizations, both in the private and public sector. He is one of the founders of the Brazilian Regional Science Association. He served in the scientific council of the Regional Science Association International.

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