Vanderbilt has a long tradition of interest in Brazil's people, culture, economy, and history.  This interest began after World War II, when the Carnegie Foundation awarded a cooperative grant to Vanderbilt University, Tulane University, the University of Texas, and the University of North Carolina to create centers for the study of Latin America. Vanderbilt used that money to establish an Institute for Brazilian Studies in 1947 and Brazil's President Eurico Dutra came to Nashville for the official launching of the Institute.  In the 1950s and 1960s the Institute broadened its scope eventually becoming the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies (CLAIS). 

Today a wide variety of programs, departments and centers in the College of Arts and Science support Brazilian studies.  CLAIS is a federally-funded Title VI National Resource Center with Foreign Languate Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships for the study of Portuguese during the academic year and summer.  It also has a FIPSE-CAPES consortium grant in conjunction with Howard University, the Universidade de São Paulo, and the Universidade Federal da Bahia focused on “Race, Development, and Social Inequality.”  With a group of Brazilianists in the departments of Anthropology, Economics, History, Sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese, Vanderbilt University has one of the strongest concentrations of Brazilianists of any university in the United States.

The Latin American collection in the Vanderbilt library, especially the Brazilian studies collection, is among the finest in the country. 

The newly-created Center for the Americas represents a major new commitment of the university to promoting comparative and interdisciplinary research.  The Center for the Americas will bring together in collaborative relationships faculty, students, and staff in a variety of programs including Latin American Studies, American and Southern Studies, and African American Studies.

Beth Conklin, Anthropology (Ph.D., 1989, University of California at San Francisco and Berkeley) beth.a.conklin@Vanderbilt.edu (615-343-6125) Professor Conklin is a cultural and medical anthropologist specializing in the ethnology of indigenous peoples of lowland South America (Amazonia).  Her research focuses on the anthropology of the body, religion and ritual, cannibalism, death and mourning, disease and healing, and indigenous identity politics.  She teaches courses on cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, shamanism, international development, South American Indians, and the anthropology of contemporary issues.  Her publications include Consuming Grief: Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society, "Body Paint, Feathers, and VCRs: Aesthetics and Authenticity in Amazonian Activism," and (with Laura Graham) "The Shifting Middle Ground: Brazilian Indians and Eco-Politics."

Marshall C. Eakin, History (Ph.D., 1981, UCLA teaches Latin American history and courses in the interdisciplinary program in Latin American Studies. His research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Brazil, especially the history of industrialization and nation-building. He also works on the history of science and technology in Latin America. His publications include British Enterprise in Brazil: The St. John d'el Rey Mining Company and the Morro Velho Gold Mine, 1830-1960 (Duke, 1989), Brazil: The Once and Future Country (St. Martin's, 1997) and Tropical Capitalism: The Industrialization of Belo Horizonte, Brazil (Palgrave, 2001). marshall.c.eakin@vanderbilt.edu

Earl E. Fitz, Portuguese (Ph.D., 1977, CUNY). Professor of Portuguese, Spanish, and Comparative Literature. Director of the Comparative Literature program. Brazilian narrative and poetry, comparative studies between Brazil and Spanish-America, inter-American literature; ambiguity and gender in the New Novel of Latin America, Modernism in the Americas; colonial literature. earl.e.fitz@vanderbilt.edu

Thomas A. Gregor, Anthropology (Ph.D., 1969, Columbia); Thomas.A.Gregor@Vanderbilt.edu
Professor Gregor is interested in psychological anthropology, gender roles and sexuality, peace and aggression, psychoanalysis and culture, anthropological ethics, and native peoples of South America and anthropological film. He is the author of Mehinaku: The Drama of Daily Life in a Brazilian Indian Village and Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People. His edited books include A Natural History of Peace and The Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence (coedited) and Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: An Exploration of the Comparative Method (coedited). He has worked as a film maker for the BBC, Grenada Television and NET in making the television films Mehinaku, We are Mehinaku, Feathered Arrows and Dreams from the Forest. Professor Gregor is currently completing a book on peaceful relations among tribes in Central Brazil, and an article on ethics and contemporary anthropology.

Russell G. Hamilton, emeritus, Portuguese (Ph.D., 1965, Yale Univesity). Professor of Portuguese, Brazilian and Lusophone African Literatures. Brazilian and Lusophone African literatures, Afro-Bahian cultural expressions, Afro-Portuguese Literature (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé e Príncipe), and postcolonial theory. russell.hamilton@vanderbilt.edu

James J. Lang, Sociology (Ph.D., 1973, University of Michigan) Research Interests: Comparative Sociology/macrosociology, Social Change, Latina/o Sociology
Office: 207 Garland Hall, Office Phone: 615-322-7516
Email: james.j.lang@vanderbilt.edu

Emanuelle Oliveira, Portuguese (Ph.D., 2001, UCLA). Assistant Professor of Luso-Brazilian Literature. Brazilian Literature and Cinema and Afro-Brazilian Literature. emanuelle.oliveira@vanderbilt.edu

The Latin American collection at the Vanderbilt University Libraries is one of its major strengths.  The longstanding geographic focus has been on the Brazilian collection.  The Colombian collection has also been a traditional strength with many unique resources and, more recently, an emphasis has been given to Mesoamerican anthropology and archaeology.  Special Collections houses eighteenth- and nineteenth-century accounts of travel and exploration in Latin America.  

The Latin American collection is particularly strong in nineteenth-century Brazilian history; that has been an area of targeted growth since the establishment of the first Institute of Brazilian Studies in the U.S. at Vanderbilt in 1947.  Exchanges of materials were established early on with government agencies, libraries, and institutes throughout Brazil as a result of Chancellor Harvie Branscomb's visits to Brazil and the visit of President Eurico Dutra to Vanderbilt.  Over time, book purchase trips to Brazil by the faculty and the Latin American Bibliographer as well as approval plans and cooperative arrangements with institutions have enhanced the collection.  NEH, Mellon and Tinker grants have allowed us to purchase many primary resources (e.g., 865 volumes of the 19^th-century British Foreign Office correspondence with Brazil) and a number of scholars have given their private libraries (e.g., Alexander Marchant, Emilio Willems).  The Marchant collection also includes Brazilian photographs and a Brazilian coin collection and is housed in Special Collections.  Most recently, a donor has given a collection of Brazilian art books, exhibition catalogs, and political and artistic posters.  

We look forward to your visit to the Library while you are here. If you would like a quick introduction to the resources or have a specific research interest, I’ll be happy to meet with you.    

Paula Covington

Latin American and Iberian Bibliographer

Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies

paula.covington@vanderbilt.edu