Description                                                  

The Brazil Initiation Scholarship (BIS) is a key component of BRASA’s agenda to expand Brazilian Studies in the United States. BRASA invites applications from graduate and undergraduate students for a one-time $1,500 travel scholarship to do exploratory research or language study in Brazil. This scholarship targets aspiring Brazilianists with relatively little or no experience in Brazil. It seeks to contribute to the student’s initial trip (for a period from six weeks to three months), to heighten the student’s interest in Brazil, and deepen his/her commitment to Brazilian studies in the United States. Students are encouraged to combine this scholarship with other grants or awards. Recipients will be recognized during the awards ceremony of Tenth BRASA International Congress in Brasília in July 2010. Funding will be disbursed prior to travel. BRASA will award four fellowships in this competition.

Eligibility

Proposals for the BRASA BIS will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

Highest priority will be given to applicants from U.S. institutions who are outstanding college seniors, recent college graduates applying to graduate programs in Brazilian studies or in Latin American studies with the intent of focusing on Brazil, or new graduate students already focusing on Brazil;

Preference will be given to those applicants who have little or no in-country experience in Brazil;

A student requesting funding to undertake an exploratory research trip should present evidence at the time of the application that he/she has achieved at least an intermediate level of competence in Portuguese language studies;

An applicant seeking support to undertake language studies should present evidence that after returning to the US he/she intends to continue studying Portuguese and plans to engage in research on Brazil;

Successful applicants may combine BIS with other grants, scholarships, or awards, as long as he/she specifies clearly how the funds are going to be spent (for example, the BRASA scholarship might be used to cover travel costs, while a grant from another source could be used for living expenses, etc.).

Application Process

A complete application (partial applications will not be considered)
will include the following documents:

The application cover page (download form);

A two-page prospectus (double spaced, 12-point font);

A two-page résumé or CV;

A budget specifying how the $1500 will be spent;

If applying for exploratory research, include a two-page bibliography on the subject of study, and present evidence that the applicant has achieved at least an intermediate level of competence in Portuguese (competence can be demonstrated by a transcript or a letter from a university instructor of Portuguese);

If applying for Portuguese language study, the name of the school should be specified;
 
Proof of membership in BRASA or a letter of intent to join BRASA; [a BRASA student membership is US$15 at www.brasa.org]

Two letters of recommendation from professors; and

Copies of undergraduate and graduate transcripts.

(The letters of recommendation and transcripts may be mailed directly to BRASA at the address below.  All other materials must be submitted together either as PDF or MSWord files in a single email to brasa@vanderbilt.edu.)

Evaluation Criteria and Selection Process

In order to be considered for the scholarship, the two-page prospectus should:

Clearly and coherently outline the project’s engagement with Brazil;
 
Demonstrate as precisely as possible the feasibility of the proposed project (exploratory research or language study) and how it will contribute to the student’s academic development;

Briefly discuss the role the work undertaken in Brazil will play in shaping the applicant’s future course of academic study (for instance, it could be the seed project for a larger grant application, provide the basis of a paper prepared for presentation at a BRASA conference, or serve as the foundation for future research on Brazil).

Report

Upon completion of the research experience in Brazil, recipients are required to file a two-page, double-spaced report with the BRASA Executive Director summarizing their activities and identifying relevant academic outcomes. In addition, a statement accounting for the expenditure of funds must be sent to the BRASA Executive Director. If the scholarship was used to study Portuguese, recipients should attach a certificate from the school where language studies were conducted. Following completion of studies in Brazil, BRASA strongly encourages recipients to participate in a subsequent BRASA congress in order to report on their activities.

Deadline for application:  November 15, 2009

Awards will be announced by February 1, 2010

To submit a proposal and for all other correspondence regarding this award, contact:

BRASA
VU Station B 350031
2301 Vanderbilt Place
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee 37235-0031
U.S.A.
615-343-1764 (tel)
615-343-6002 (fax)
email: brasa@vanderbilt.edu

Yehonathan Broski, University of Texas, Department of History, doctoral student
The award enabled me to visit a variety of archives in  Brazil and collect rare books, periodicals and manuscripts detailing Arab culture in that country. Specifically, the Instituto de Cultura Arabe, the Nucleo de Estudos Libaneses, and Nucleo de Estudos do Oriente Medio at the Fluminense University, along with Professor Safa Jubran's private library have provided me with documents that  are only found in Brazil and that shed light on Levantine life in the early part of last century. Altogether, I have brought home more than 10 thousand pages of documents, which include rare newspapers, magazines, books, travel documents, manuscripts, and personal memoirs that are needless to say not available in the US.  More specifically, these documents reveal that Levantines not only represented large literary communities in Brazil by the late 19th century--but that they formed an active and influential culture that continued to play into the affairs of the homeland. This diaspora cultivated and nurtured social Arab nationalist movements and birthed intellectual and political figures which would play significant roles in the then rising state of Lebanon.

Amanda Hughes, University of Chicago, Department of History, doctoral student
I began the summer doing research in Rio de Janeiro at the Arquivo Nacional and the Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea (CPDOC) at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas.  At the Arquivo Nacional I found a rich collection of the Instituto do Açúcar e do Álcool’s (I.A.A.) records including files on individual mills, credit lending, I.A.A. budgets and correspondence. With this collection, combined with the documents and interview transcripts at CPDOC, I will be able to complete my dissertation on the history of the I.A.A.  The findings from this summer will serve as the basis for my dissertation proposal and bolster my applications for the Fulbright and Social Science Research Council fellowships.  The B.I.S. has allowed me to position myself as a top candidate for these grants as I can specify what sources I will use, where they are located, and which institutions and individuals in Brazil are willing to offer me guidance during my stay there. I combined the B.I.S. with funding from the Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant to support language study.  This was a unique opportunity to sharpen my written and spoken Portuguese.  My newfound facility with Portuguese made possible professional and social exchanges which will continue for years to come and will greatly aid current and future research.  I was able to attend events at CPDOC and participate in detailed scholarly discussion, something that was unthinkable given my language level just at the start of this year.  A scholar at UNICAMP, who had been a visiting scholar at my home institution, remarked on my vast language improvement and suggested that now I was truly a “Brazilianist.”     

Hasan Shahid, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Latin American Studies, M.A. student
Before traveling to Brazil this summer, I had originally planned to focus on studying the role of mosques in São Paulo in the shaping of religious identity among local Muslims. After rethinking my project, I decided to focus not just on the mosque as an influence on religious identity but other environmental factors as well, such as the portrayal of Islam in the media. In order to collect data for my research, which took place between May and August, I took a multifaceted approach. First, I frequented the city’s mosques several times a week.  Second, I conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with local Muslims, both converts and those born into Muslim families. Finally, I collected books, magazines, and pamphlets from various Muslim organizations. As my research progressed, I eventually concentrated on studying Muslim converts. Since little research about Muslim converts in Brazil exists, I believe the thesis I will produce with the data gathered abroad will provide a significant contribution to Latin American studies.

Click here for a bibliography on Brazilian emigration with more than 250 sources prepared by Maxine Margolis, University of Florida.