imPACT: Diálogos

Katerina Hatzikidi

How did Jair Bolsonaro rise to power in 2018? How have the armed forces influenced Brazil’s political scenario in recent history? What can the rise of evangelical Christianity tell us about the country’s conservative turn? How relevant are conspiracy theories? imPACT: Diálogos is a series of seven episodes on contemporary Brazilian politics and society. Structured around an interview format, each episode invites an expert to break down a complex political scenario and offer rich and accessible analyses to a broad English-speaking audience.

Episodes

  1. 10/15/2021

    Episode 5: Culture Wars and Hate Rhetoric: Orvil (with João Cezar de Castro Rocha)

    In the fifth episode of imPACT: Diálogos, historian João Cezar de Castro Rocha speaks about Orvil, a book written by members of the Armed Forces as an answer to Brasil: Nunca Mais, the watershed book project that documents episodes of torture and violence during the military dictatorship. He reflects on the influence of Orvil on the current administration and on the Bolsonaro family in particular, and analyses the ‘hate rhetoric’ found in their political discourse. João Cezar de Castro Rocha is Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). He is the author of several books, among them, Literatura e cordialidade: O público e o privado na cultura brasileira and the O exílio do homem cordial: Ensaios e revisões. Among other distinctions, João Cezar has received the Endowed Chair Machado de Assis of Latin American Studies and was Ministry of Culture Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, and John and Rose Jackson Fellow at Yale University. imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany. It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi. Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña Cover image: Yul Koh Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter To find out more about PACT, visit: https://erc-pact.eu/ and follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

    27 min
  2. 10/08/2021

    Episode 4: The History of Anti-Communism in Brazil (with Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta)

    In the fourth episode of imPACT: Diálogos, historian Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta speaks about the history of anti-communism in Brazil, the conspiracy theories that often form part of it, and militarism in Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. He points to continuities as well as disruptions between the different anti-communist waves in the country’s history and discusses why and how anti-communism, as a catch-all term, resonated again in recent years. Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta is a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Santiago, the National University of Colombia, the New Sorbonne – Paris 3 university, and at several universities in Argentina. His work focuses mainly on political history with a particular interest in the 1964 coup d’état, the military regime, and issues of political repression and anti-communism. imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany. It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi. Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña Cover image: Yul Koh Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter To find out more about PACT, visit: https://erc-pact.eu/ and follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

    37 min
  3. 09/24/2021

    Episode 2: The Brazilian New Right (with Camila Rocha)

    In the second episode of imPACT: Diálogos, political scientist Camila Rocha speaks about the formation of the Brazilian new right in the early 2000s and the directions it is currently taking. She also discusses the concepts of ‘counter publicity’ and ‘leftist cultural hegemony’ and shares insights from her fieldwork with Bolsonaro voters. Camila Rocha is a researcher at the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). Her doctoral thesis, ‘Menos Marx Mais Mises’: uma gênese da nova direita brasileira, 2006–2018, received the award for best doctoral thesis from the Brazilian Association of Political Science (2017–19). Her research interests are political culture, political behaviour and qualitative methods. Among her publications are: As direitas nas redes e nas ruas: a crise política no Brasil (co-editor, with Esther Solano, 2019), and The Brazilian New Right and the Election of Jair Bolsonaro (with Esther Solano, 2021). imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany. It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi. Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña Cover image: Yul Koh Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter To find out more about PACT, follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

    31 min
  4. 09/17/2021

    Episode 1: The Past of the Present (with Lilia Moritz Schwarcz)

    In the first episode of imPACT: Diálogos, anthropologist and historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz sheds light on Brazil’s authoritarian past and offers insights into how this past may be reflected on its present. She draws an unexpected parallel between the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the handling of the influenza in the early 20th century and discusses the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Brazil’s ‘minoritised majorities’. Lilia Moritz Schwarcz is senior professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) and visiting professor at Princeton University. She has published several books, including Retrato em branco e preto (1987), O espectáculo das raças (1993), As Barbas do Imperador (1998), A longa viagem da biblioteca dos reis (2002), O sol do Brasil (2008), Um enigma chamado Brasil (with André Botelho, 2009), Brasil : Uma biografia (with Heloisa Starling, 2015), Dicionário da escravidão e Liberdade (with Flavio Gomes, 2018), Lima Barreto. Triste visionário (2018) and Sobre o autoritarismo brasileiro (2019). In 2010, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz received the Comenda do Mérito Científico, and she is a member of the American committee of Human Rights Watch. She writes regularly in Brazilian newspapers such as Folha de S. Paulo, Estado de S. Paulo, Globo and Nexo, for which she has written a column since 2016. Since 2015 she has been assistant curator for histories at the São Paulo Museum of Art. imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany. It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi. Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña Cover image: Yul Koh Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter To find out more about PACT, follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

    24 min

About

How did Jair Bolsonaro rise to power in 2018? How have the armed forces influenced Brazil’s political scenario in recent history? What can the rise of evangelical Christianity tell us about the country’s conservative turn? How relevant are conspiracy theories? imPACT: Diálogos is a series of seven episodes on contemporary Brazilian politics and society. Structured around an interview format, each episode invites an expert to break down a complex political scenario and offer rich and accessible analyses to a broad English-speaking audience.