Brazil: Challenge and Progress

Explore critical social issues in Brazil through an engaging panel discussion with leading academics, followed by the screening of a powerful documentary on police violence in Rio de Janeiro. This event offers a vivid survey into topics like human rights, environmental justice, and social inequities, providing attendees with a nuanced understanding of the complex challenges faced by Brazil today as well as potential pathways forward.

Agenda:

• 3:30 p.m. Panel Discussion and Q&A, moderated by Leif Wenar (McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society)
• 5:00 p.m. Break with Brazilian food and mingling
• 5:30 p.m. Screening of Orphan Mothers (A Troco de Nada) with Octávio Ferraz (producer)

Panelist Topics and Bios:

Octávio Ferraz (King's College London)

• Topic: Human Rights and Environmental Justice in the Amazon
• Bio: Octávio Ferraz is a Professor of Law at King's College London with a special interest in the relationship between socioeconomic factors and the effectiveness of human rights law, particularly in the fields of health and the environment. He is the author of Health as a Human Right: The Politics and Judicialization of Health in Brazil and is currently researching for a book on environmental law and human rights of traditional and indigenous communities in the Amazon.

Rob Jackson (Stanford Woods Institute)

• Topic: Climate and Deforestation in the Amazon
• Bio: Rob Jackson is an Earth and Climate scientist at Stanford University. He chairs the Global Carbon Project, an international organization that tracks greenhouse gas emissions and land use change. His upcoming climate-solutions book, Into the Clear Blue Sky (Simon & Schuster), will be published this summer.

Jessie Brunner (Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice)

• Topic: Combatting Labor Exploitation in Brazil
• Bio: Jessie Brunner serves as Director of Human Trafficking Research at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University. She is currently working on several multidisciplinary, community-engaged research projects on labor exploitation in Southeast Asia and Brazil and remains actively engaged in global policy around the implementation of UN SDG 8.7. Her work is motivated by the desire to understand how these forms of abuse are linked to systemic inequities and, in turn, how policies can be designed to curb them while promoting fairness and justice.

Guilherme Lichand (Stanford Graduate School of Education)

• Topic: The Past, the Present, and the Future of Inequities within Brazilian Education
• Bio: Guilherme Lichand is proudly from Brazil. His research focuses on sources of educational inequities in the global South and on solutions with the potential to overturn them. He holds a PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. He was previously the UNICEF Professor of Child Well-being and Development at the University of Zurich.

This event is co-sponsored by Stanford’s McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Woods Institute for the Environment.

Please note that this event is in-person only, and RSVPs are requested to attend. Walk-ins are welcome. Open to all.

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If you require disability-related accommodation, please contact as soon as possible or at least 7 business days in advance of the event.

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Host or Publisher The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society