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PREFACE Brazilian Studies in the United States A Project in Development RUBENS ANTONIO BARBOSA Even before I came to Washington as the Brazilian ambassador to the United States in June 1999, I had already decided to build and maintain a strong working relationship with the academic community in the United States. I saw this not only as an opportunity to create new momentum for Brazilian studies in the United States but also as a way of expanding the intellectual cooperation between U.S. scholars of Brazil and their Brazilian counterparts. I was fully and personally aware of the long tradition of Brazilian studies in the United States, as has been manifested in the hundreds of high-quality academic studies that constitute a category that we Brazilians would call "Brazilianism." This idea became a reality almost immediately, through a meeting held at the Brazilian embassy in October 1999. In the beginning, the plan was to bring together those (few) responsible for Brazilian studies programs and the directors of the main academic centers for Latin American studies at major universities in the United States, for what would be the first gathering for networking, discussing the field of study, and, above all, planning new initiatives and activities that could result in the expansion of Brazilian studies in those academic centers. The news that the Brazilian embassy in Washington was planning to hold an exploratory, and therefore understandably modest and tentative, meeting spread like wildfire . The Brazilianist community across the United States soon became aware of the event and started requesting invitations for other directors of centers for Latin American studies and for new "active academic representatives " of Brazilian studies. Thus a meeting that was intended for fewer than twenty center directors and a few heads of Brazil programs ix x Preface became a gathering of about fifty Brazilianists and Latin Americanists, something that had never taken place as part of the official Brazilian diplomatic activities in the United States. As would be expected with any premiere, expectations for the meeting were high. Aside from its other practical results, the meeting was a success simply because it was held, opening the way for a productive dialogue between the Brazilian embassy and those responsible for academic studies, especially the many "interpreters of Brazil" from outside Brazil (in fact, many had lived in Brazil for long periods of time and spoke Portuguese without any accent). For the purpose of this book, it is important to highlight that the proposition of making a survey of the Brazilianist work produced in the United States after the Second World War was welcomed with enthusiasm, even if with the analytical mind-set that is to be expected of any academic community that insists on methodological skepticism when faced with any broader attempt to produce an overview. The project for the book proceeded as planned with the selection of the researchers and the preparation of tentative chapters, as well as the expected and necessary changes of approach and methodological adaptations (such as the inclusion of language studies, for instance, which is of negligible importance in Brazil, for obvious reasons, but that could be considered strategic in terms of the future of Brazilian studies in the United States). A second meeting with Brazilianists, this time dedicated specifically to discussing the chapters of the future book, was again held at the embassy in December 2000, with the enthusiastic participation of about fifty scholars as special guests and the same number of other experts in Brazil and Latin America, along with many others who shared an interest in this type of academic discussion. What you are about to read in this compilation of essays, which I am pleased to introduce, is the result of an intense cross-fertilization process between U.S. Brazilianists and Brazilian scholars who came in large numbers to critically analyze texts written by their colleagues (many of whom had been friends for a long time, although this did not reduce the intensity of the debates). It would be impossible to summarize here the high quality of the interaction that took place then. Many of those who were present will remember the depth, intensity, and seriousness of some exchanges that occurred among the experts, the same way that I recall pleasant conversations I had with several scholars present, the majority of whom are well known by generations of Brazilian social science students and also by the Brazilian public in general. In a way, one could say that, during those two days...

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