Professor Nancy Hanrahan spent the spring semester, 2011, as a Fulbright scholar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She taught a graduate seminar in feminist theory in the Department of Sociology and Politics of Pontificia Universidade Catolica, and worked with colleagues at the university to develop curriculum in Women and Gender Studies. She received many invitations to speak about her current research (on cultural criticism in the age of the Internet), and on the history and future prospects of women’s studies academic programs in the US. She also spoke about the status of feminist scholarship in Brazilian universities at a roundtable discussion during a visit by the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Affairs. Despite the growing number of Brazilian scholars engaged in feminist research, there are only a handful of academic programs in women and gender studies in Brazil. Based on the interest of colleagues in Rio and elsewhere in the country, she hopes to organize a conference of Brazilian and US scholars to discuss the opportunities, strategies, problems and institutional risks of developing such programs.
September 05, 2011
