And just like that, we're off!
The first week of short term flew by with intensive sessions in the classroom to prepare for our trip. We looked at foundational texts on the construction of race, gender, and sexuality within Brazil, asking questions like "what makes one Brazilian, afinal das contas?"; "how have the land and peoples of Brazil been sexualized, racialized, and gendered over the years?" We also worked through classics like Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in 20th Century Brazil (Green 1999) and Travesti (Kulick 1998). These texts were complemented with nightly screenings of Orfeu Negro (Camus 1959), Madame Satã (Aïnouz 2002), São Paulo em Hi-Fi (Steffen 2016), and Bombadeira (Carlos de Alencar 2007).
Next up, a long red eye flight to Guarulhos International Airport and an afternoon flight to Salvador da Bahia!