Brazil and multiculturalism: racial policies and financing networks of the Ford Foundation (1960-1990)

• Grant number: 12/51086-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal researcher: Elizabeth Cancelli
• Grantee: Wanderson da Silva Chaves
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this research project is to investigate how so-called multicultural agendas, and identity struggles, serving as a basis for promises of economic elevation and dignified treatment for people and ethnic groups, have become hegemonic in a social-political sense and anti-racist from the 1970s onwards. My investigation will focus on the actions of institutions, such as the Center for Afro-Asian Studies (CEAA), based in Rio de Janeiro; and the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP), based in Sao Paulo, and their intellectual, institutional and financial relationship networks. Emphasis will be given to political and academic activities that have guided activities of these two institutions in their efforts pertaining to the racial issue, as well as their links to the Ford Foundation. In principle, my analysis and research will focus on material from the Ford Foundation Archives (New York), and I also intend to include relevant documents from other international and national archives. The suggested time cut-off will essentialy serve to create analytical bridges and fill in gaps in documentation between the investigation of my doctorate, in the context of racial debate in the construction of North American international agendas during the Cold War, and the emergence of multicultural policies that mark the "political awareness" of our time. (AU)