News

Northwestern and Brazil’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas Begin Multifaceted Collaboration

1/7/2009

On December 1-3, President Bienen and Provost Linzer welcomed the President and Deans of Brazil’s Fundação Getúlio Vargas to Northwestern to launch a cooperative agreement between the two schools. The Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) is home to Brazil’s premier business, social science, and law programs, as well as the country’s most important 20th-century political archives. The agreement reflects both the expanding scope of Northwestern’s international initiatives and Brazil’s increasing importance in the world arena.

The agreement is the culmination of more than a year of conversations and reciprocal visits initiated through the Office for International Program Development and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS). The Fundação has agreed to host a new undergraduate study abroad program for Northwestern students at its Rio campus, to begin fall 2009. The program, Northwestern’s first in Brazil, will give students a unique insider’s view of the country’s history and contemporary political economy; the ten week stay will feature courses in Rio as well as opportunities to travel to São Paulo and Brasília.

In addition, representatives from all of FGV’s schools met with their counterparts at Northwestern to discuss possibilities for meaningful collaboration at the graduate and faculty levels. Initial proposals include continuing collaboration between Northwestern and FGV political science faculty on issues of violence and policing; a graduate seminar on oral history planned jointly between FGV historians and Northwestern’s Center for Historical Studies; and faculty conference on poverty and urban space that would be jointly sponsored by the FGV and the Buffett Center. The visitors also initiated conversations with faculty at the Law School, the Kellogg School, the Economics Department, and the Institute for Policy Research. The first collaborative ventures are expected to begin in 2009-10.