Guest Talk about Resistance & Education in Brazil

Dr. Rebecca Tarlau, Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University, will be giving a talk about her exciting new book, Occupying Schools, Occupying Lands: How the Landless Workers Movement Transformed Brazilian Education (Oxford University Press, 2019) on Jan. 23^rd, from 12-1:30pm in Room 41. This talk may be of particular interest to faculty and students interested in social movements, education, Latin America, and ethnography.  See below for a summary of her talk:

Over the past 35 years the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), one of the largest social movements in Latin America, has become famous globally for its success in occupying land, winning land rights, and developing alternative economic enterprises for over a million landless workers. The movement has also linked education reform to its vision for agrarian reform by developing pedagogical practices for schools that foster activism, direct democracy, and collective forms of work.  In Occupying Schools, Occupying Land, Rebecca Tarlau explores how MST activists have pressured municipalities, states, and the federal government to implement their educational program in public schools and universities, affecting hundreds of thousands of students. Contrary to the belief that movements cannot engage the state without demobilizing, Tarlau shows how educational institutions can help movements recruit new activists, diversify their membership, increase technical knowledge, and garner political power.