Brazil’s New Government: The First Hundred Days of Dilma Rousseff
A conference organised by the King’s Brazil Institute
King’s College London
6-7 April 2011
In October 2010 Dilma Rousseff became the first woman to be elected President of Brazil. The chosen
successor of the enormously popular President Luíz Inácio “Lula” da Silva (2003-10), and the inheritor of a
seemingly robust economy, President Dilma faces a number of challenges, and her inauguration on 1
January 2011 raised a number of questions about the composition and direction of her government. For
example, how much continuity will there be between the Dilma administration and President Lula’s second
term (2007-10)? Will the new government consolidate a “developmentalist” agenda, and continue to
reduce poverty and inequality? Can economic growth be maintained despite high interest rates and a
strong real? Can President Dilma manage the coalition of ten parties supporting her government in
Congress? Will she make extra efforts to promote women and address gender inequality? How will her
government deal with environmental and human rights issues? Is foreign policy likely to change? How likely
is political reform? Will there be new policies in the area of culture? Could the role of the military in
internal politics change? Will new regulations over the media be introduced? Can President Dilma improve
Brazil’s infrastructure in time for the 2014 World Cup? Are significant improvements in the quality of
education possible?
The conference will address these and related questions, using the milestone of President Dilma’s first
hundred days (actually her ninety-sixth and ninety-seventh days) to take stock of the new government.
Participants will take note of presidential appointments, political discourse, policy changes, and continuities
with the previous administration in their particular area of expertise, providing a panoramic overview of
the early period of this new government at a time when Brazil is increasingly visible on the world stage.
Wednesday 6 April
17.30-19.00, followed by a reception
Venue: Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, King’s Building
Keynote presentations and discussion with:
Dr Durval de Noronha, Senior Partner, Noronha Advogados
Ambassador Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães, High General Representative of MERCOSUR
Dr Durval de Noronha is a Senior Partner, founder, and President of the Executive Committee of Noronha Advogados,
an international law firm with headquarters in São Paulo. He graduated from the Law School of the Pontifícia
Universidade Católica – São Paulo (PUC-SP) in 1975 and took postgraduate courses in business law (PUC-SP) and
constitutional law (Hastings College of Law, University of California, San Francisco). Dr Noronha was an “ad-hoc”
Brazilian government representative for the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in
1992 and 1993 and President of the Brazilian Bar Association’s commission on the GATT. He is an arbitrator for the
World Trade Organisation and for the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, and was
previously an arbitrator for the GATT. He is President of the Mercosul Association for the Rule of Law in International
Relations. Dr Noronha is also a commentator on political and economic issues in the Brazilian press and an author of
several books. Among his publications are a Chinese-Portuguese dictionary and two important recent works of
commentary, A Marcha da História: Notas Sobre Direito e Relações Internacionais (The March of History: Notes on
Law and International Relations), published in 2008, and Diário da Crise or Diary of the Crisis (2010), on the 2008-9
global financial and commercial crisis and its political consequences.
Ambassador Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães is a senior Brazilian diplomat who is currently the High General
Representative of MERCOSUR. He was appointed to this position in January 2011, and is responsible for the
formulation of policies and the representation of common positions within the trade bloc, whose full members are
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Ambassador Pinheiro Guimarães was Minister of Strategic Affairs in 200910, and from 2003-09 served as the Secretary-General of External Relations in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
Ambassador Pinheiro Guimarães has a law degree from the University of Brasília (UnB) and an MA in Economics from
Boston University, and has been a faculty member at the University of Brasília and the Rio Branco Institute. He is the
author of several books in Portuguese and English, including the edited volume Challenges: United Kingdom and Brazil
(1997), Quinhentos Anos de Periferia (Five Hundred Years of the Periphery), first published in 1999, and Desafios
Brasileiros na Era dos Gigantes (Brazilian Challenges in the Era of the Giants), published in 2006. In the latter year
Ambassador Guimarães was awarded the Juca Pato prize for “intellectual of the year” by the Brazilian Union of
Writers.
Thursday 7 April
8.45-17.15
Venue: S-3.20, 3rd Basement, Strand Building
8:15-8:45:
Coffee and registration
8:45-9:00:
Introductory Remarks
9:00-10:30:
Panel 1: Culture, Gender, Media
Chair: Maite Conde, King’s Brazil Institute, King’s College London
Maite Conde is research fellow in the King’s Brazil Institute, where she is currently conducting research for a book on
early cinema in Brazil. She has written numerous essays on Brazilian literature and film and is the author of Consuming
Visions. Cinema, Writing and Modernity in Rio de Janeiro (University of Virginia Press, 2011). Maite has also recently
completed a translated anthology of essays by Brazilian philosopher Marilena Chauí, which will be published in June
2011 by Palgrave Macmillan as part of the new series Theory in the World edited by Gayatri Spivak.
Culture: Paul Heritage, Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London
Paul Heritage is Professor of Drama and Performance at Queen Mary, University of London, Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts and founding Director of People’s Palace Projects. In 2004 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Rio
Branco by the Brazilian government in recognition of his services to Anglo-Brazilian cultural relations. For 15 years he
created theatre-based human rights projects in dozens of prisons from São Paulo through to Rondônia, working
closely with DEPEN in the Ministry of Justice. As a producer he has produced a range of Brazilian companies at major
cultural institutions in the UK, bringing Grupo Galpão to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, AfroReggae to the Barbican and
Southbank Centre, and Nós do Morro to the Royal Shakespeare Company. Heritage has directed Shakespeare’s plays
with celebrated casts in some of Rio de Janeiro’s most distinguished theatres as well as on the borderlands of conflict
in the favelas of Vigário Geral, Parada de Lucas, Rocinha, etc. On behalf of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Arts
Council England, British Council and DCMS, Heritage curated a cultural exchange programme for policy makers and
artists focusing on Brazil’s Pontos de Cultura. Author of a number of publications about Brazil, he had a studio theatre
named after him in the maximum-security prison of Brasília.
Gender: Karla Bessa, Department of Film Studies, King’s College London / PAGU, UNICAMP
Karla Bessa has been a researcher at PAGU (Centre for Gender Studies), UNICAMP, since 2008, where she is a
Professor on the postgraduate course in Social Sciences, Gender Studies. She is also affiliated to the Masters degree
programme in History, in the research field of Politics and Imaginary, at UFU (Federal University of Uberlandia, MG).
She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Film Studies, King's College London. She has a PhD in
Historiography of Brazil from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (2000), and post-doctoral degrees from the
Center of Latin American & Caribbean Studies at UMICH (Michigan University, USA, 2004) and from the University of
Lisbon, ISCTE, 2008).
Media: Carolina Matos, London School of Economics
Carolina Matos is a Fellow in Political Communications at the LSE. She is the author of Journalism and Political
Democracy in Brazil (Rowman and Littlefield/Lexington Books, 2008, 2009), also published in Brazil by Publifolha. She
obtained her PhD in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths College. She has also worked as a visiting tutor and
researcher for University of East London and St Mary’s University College in Twickenham. Matos previously worked as
a journalist in Brazil for 10 years, for Reuters, Tribuna da Imprensa, Folha and Globo Online. Her forthcoming book,
Media and politics in Latin America: globalization, democracy and identity, is to be published by IB Tauris in January
2012.
10:30-10:45:
Coffee break
10:45-12:15:
Panel 2: Environment, Human Rights, Defence Policy
Chair: David Treece, Department of Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, King’s College London
David Treece is Camoens Professor of Portuguese in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American
Studies at King’s College, London. He is the author of Exiles, Allies, Rebels: Brazil’s Indianist Movement, Indigenist
Politics, and the Imperial Nation-State (Greenwood, 2000), the co-author of The Gathering of Voices: the twentiethcentury poetry of Latin America (Verso, 1992), and his translations of Brazilian fiction and poetry include João
Guimarães Rosa’s The Jaguar and other stories (2001).
Environment: Anthony Hall, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics
Anthony Hall is Reader in Social Policy and Development at the London School of Economics. He has carried out
extensive research and consultancy in the Brazilian Amazon on issues of deforestation, sustainable development and
emerging REDD+ activities. He has also written on the impacts of the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer
programme. His most recent books dealing with Brazil are: Global Impact, Local Action: New Environmental Policy in
Latin America (2005), Amazonia at the Crossroads: the Challenge of Sustainable Development (2000) and Sustaining
Amazonia: grassroots action for productive conservation (1997).
Human Rights: Par Engstrom, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
Par Engstrom (BA UCL, MSc London, DPhil Oxford) is Lecturer in Human Rights at the Human Rights Consortium,
School of Advanced Study, University of London. He teaches human rights at the Institute for the Study of the
Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. His current research interests focus on regional human rights
institutions both comparatively and with a particular reference to the Inter-American human rights system. Recent
publications include “Brasil: los derechos humanos en la política exterior de una potencia emergente” in Los derechos
humanos y la política exterior de los países de América Latina, Ana Covarrubias Velasco and Natalia Saltalamacchia
Ziccardi (eds.) (forthcoming); and “Human Rights: Effectiveness of International and Regional Mechanisms” in The
International Studies Encyclopedia, Robert A Denemark (ed.), (Blackwell Publishing, 2010).
Defence Policy: Juliana Bertazzo, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
Juliana Bertazzo is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Campinas (Brazil). She is also an associate at the LSE Ideas (Latin America Programme) and an associate fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas (SAS) in
London. Dr Bertazzo received postgraduate training at the National Defence University (Washington, D.C.) and
recently taught at the Latin American Centre (Oxford).
12:15-13:45:
Lunch break
13:45-15:15:
Panel 3: Public Security, Political Economy, Politics
Chair: Anthony Pereira, King’s Brazil Institute, King’s College London
Anthony W Pereira is a Professor of Brazilian Studies and Director of the Brazil Institute at King’s College London. He
obtained his BA from Sussex University (UK) in 1982 and his MA and PhD degrees from Harvard University in 1986 and
1991 respectively. He has held teaching positions at Harvard, the New School, the Fletcher School at Tufts, Tulane, and
the University of East Anglia. His research interests include the issues of democracy, human rights, and military rule,
particularly in Brazil and the southern cone of Latin America. A Portuguese translation of his book Political (In)justice:
Authoritarianism and the Rule of Law in Brazil, Chile and Argentina (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005) was released
in Brazil by Paz e Terra (São Paulo) with the title Ditadura e Repressão in early May, 2010. He is currently engaged in
research on new human rights institutions in Brazil.
Public Security: Fiona Macaulay, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford
Fiona Macaulay is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Bradford and a former Research Fellow
in Human Rights at the Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on gender policies and
politics, as well as criminal justice reform, especially police and prisons in Latin America and Brazil.
Political Economy: Alfredo Saad-Filho, Department of Development Studies, SOAS
Alfredo Saad Filho is Professor of Political Economy at SOAS, University of London. He has degrees in Economics from
the Universities of Brasilia (Brazil) and London (SOAS), and has taught and researched in universities in Brazil and
Mozambique as well as the UK. He is currently working at the Unit on Economic Cooperation and Integration among
Developing Countries at UNCTAD, in Geneva. His research interests include the political economy of development,
industrial policy, Latin American political and economic development, inflation and stabilisation, and the labour theory
of value and its applications.
Politics: Timothy Power, Latin American Centre, University of Oxford
Timothy J Power is University Lecturer in Brazilian Studies and a Fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford,
where he is also a member of the Department of Politics and International Relations. Since 2008 he has directed the
university’s Latin American Centre. A former visiting professor at the University of Brasília and the Federal University
of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, Dr Power is the author or co-editor of several books on Brazilian politics, including The
Political Right in Postauthoritarian Brazil (Penn State University Press, 2000), Democratic Brazil Revisited (University of
Pittsburgh Press, 2008), and Corruption and Democracy in Brazil (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011).
15:15-15:30:
Coffee break
15:30-17:00:
Panel 4: Economy, Development, Trade
Chair: Kun-Chin Lin, King’s China Institute, King’s College London
Kun-Chin Lin is a Lecturer at the King's China Institute at King’s College London. He obtained his PhD in political science
from the University of California at Berkeley and was a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford. He has led Chinarelated research projects on industrial organisation and labour relations, central-local government relations, energy
policy and foreign direct investment, political and regulatory risk analysis, infrastructure development, and Asia-Pacific
regionalism. Dr Lin is a member of Frost & Sullivan’s Board of Economic Advisers, a Collaborating Partner of the Global
Biopolitics Research Group, and an editorial board member of the international journal Business & Politics.
Development: Sue Branford, Independent Journalist
Sue Branford is a journalist and writer on Latin America, particularly Brazil. She has been foreign correspondent in
Brazil for several UK newspapers, including the Financial Times and the Guardian. She has published four books,
including Cutting the Wire -- the Story of the Landless Movement in Brazil (which she co-authored with Jan Rocha) and
Politics Transformed - Lula and the Workers Party in Brazil (which she co-authored with Bernardo Kucinski).
Trade: Mahrukh Doctor, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Hull
Mahrukh Doctor is Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Hull and Visiting Associate Professor at the Johns
Hopkins University (SAIS) Bologna Center in Italy during academic year 2010-11. Previous positions include adjunct
professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center (2005-2010), lecturer in international relations at
University of Reading (2003-05), research fellow at St Antony's and the Centre for Brazilian Studies at the University of
Oxford (2000-2003), and economist at the World Bank (1991-92). She received her doctorate from University of
Oxford in 2000.
17:00-17:15:
Closing Remarks
King’s Brazil Institute, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS
www.kcl.ac.uk/brazilinstitute