The Brazil LAB is an original initiative, gathering Princeton faculty and students working in and on Brazil and on subjects Brazil is helpful to think with. Spearheaded by PIIRS and in synergy with various departments, programs and initiatives, the LAB | Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies | is a multi-disciplinary research and teaching hub for exploring the country’s history, politics and culture, along with its regional significance and international connections.
In the LAB, we take Brazil as a dynamic nexus for engaging pressing issues — from the Amazonian tipping point to democratic insecurities to socioeconomic and health inequities to emerging forms of political mobilization and cultural expression — that affect people in Brazil and globally, and that are salient to both established scholarship and nascent critical work.
With a flagship Global Seminar and myriad intellectual activities, the LAB brings students and faculty to the comprehensive study of Brazil, while also promoting novel research collaborations across political economies and cultures.
Responding to emergent problematics requires developing our collective capacities to formulate new questions, to promote international and experiential learning, to sustain in-depth reflection, and to collaboratively envision alternatives. We seek to train a cosmopolitan new generation of Brazilianists capable of producing trailblazing, socially meaningful scholarship.