History of Evolution and Heredity in Brazil
This group examines the history of the evolutionary synthesis of genetics and natural selection, and its impact upon agriculture, and theories of race and eugenics.
Meetings are held in Portuguese.
Please set your timezone at https://www.chstm.org/user
Consortium Respectful Behavior Policy
Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.
Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.
Upcoming Meetings
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Friday, September 20, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
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Friday, October 18, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
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Friday, November 15, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
TBA
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Friday, December 20, 2024 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
TBA
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Friday, January 17, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
TBA
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Friday, February 21, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST
TBA
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Friday, March 21, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
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Friday, April 18, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
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Friday, May 16, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
Past Meetings
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August 16, 2024
Speaker:
Mikhail Konashev (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Institute of the History of Science and Technology, RussiaPresentation:
"On Brazil and Brazilians in Dobzhansky's Diary."
["Sobre o Brasil e os Brasileiros no Diário de Dobzhansky."]
(The lecture will be in English)
Suggested Readings:
Soon.
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about Dr. Konashev, please click here.
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July 26, 2024
Speaker:
Dr. Eyal Weinberg (Florida, US)
Historian of modern Latin America, with a focus on Brazil
Assistant Professor, Florida Atlantic University
Presentation:
"Medical Ethics, Health Struggles, and Family Planning in Cold War Brazil"
["Ética Médica, Lutas pela Saúde e Planejamento Familiar no Brasil durante a Guerra Fria"].
(The lecture will be in English)
Suggested Readings:
1—Eyal Weinberg, “Planning a Brazilian Family: Birth Control, Sterilization, and the Welfare of Society,” Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe Vol. 34. No. 2 (2023): 97-121
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379276476_Planning_a_Family_Bir...
2- Edméia de Almeida Cardoso Coelho, Maria de Fátima Gomes de Lucena, and Ana Tereza de Medeiros Silva, “O planejamento familiar no Brasil no contexto das políticas públicas de saúde: determinantes históricos,” Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 34:1 (2000), pp. 37–44.
https://www.scielo.br/j/reeusp/a/GrTf3vFznTHzrbmnDHQHtDP
3- Sarah Escorel, Reviravolta na saúde: origem e articulação do movimento sanitário (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz, 1999).
https://static.scielo.org/scielobooks/qxhc3/pdf/escorel-9788575413616.pdf
4 - Gilberto Hochman and Diego Armus, eds., Cuidar, controlar, curar ensaios históricos sobre saúde e doença na América Latina e Caribe (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz, 2004)
https://portal.fiocruz.br/livro/cuidar-controlar-curar-ensaios-historico...
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about Dr. Weinberg, please click here.
Join us for this engaging discussion!
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June 21, 2024
Speaker:
M.Sc. Lucas Carvalho do Nascimento Nogueira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
PhD student in the Graduate Program in History of Sciences and Health, Fiocruz — Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC).
Professor at the Department of Education of the State of Minas Gerais.
Presentation:
"Aprenda a planejar a sua família, o nascimento dos bons: controle populacional no Brasil, 1961-1993.”
[“Learning Family Planning, Birthing the Better: Population Control in Brazil, 1961-1993.”].
Suggested Readings:
1- Levine, Philippa, Eugenics : a very short introduction / : New York, NY: Oxford University Press, [2017] |Series: Very short introductions. Pages: 97-120.
https://academic.oup.com/book/825/chapter-abstract/135446303?redirectedF...
2- RAMSDEN, Edmund. Confronting the Stigma of Eugenics: Genetics, Demography and the Problems of Population: Social Studies of Science, December 2009, Vol. 39, No. 6 (December 2009), pp. 853-884.
Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20506743/
3 – MERCHANT, Emily K. American Demographers and Global Population Policy in the Postwar World. Modern American History (2021), 4, 239–261 doi:10.1017/mah.2021.22.
Link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-american-history/article/...
4- BHERING, Marcos Jungmann
Controle de natalidade no Brasil: um estudo sobre o Centro de Pesquisas e Assistência Integral à Mulher e à Criança (1975-1994). Tese (Doutorado em História das Ciências e da Saúde) – Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 2014. 202 f. Cap 04 – páginas, 129-156.
https://ppghcs.coc.fiocruz.br/images/dissertacoes/teste/tese_marcos_bher...
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about M.Sc. Nogueira, please click here.
The presentation will be in Portuguese.Join us for this engaging discussion!
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May 17, 2024
Dr. Leonardo Dallacqua de Carvalho (Brazil)
Graduate Program in History at State University of Maranhão - UEMA, Brazil.
PhD in History of Sciences at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (2019).
Presentation:
“Eugenics e (Hi)story-play-spaces: jogos eletrônicos e eugenia nas narrativas históricas".
[Eugenics and (Hi)story-play-spaces: Electronic Games and Eugenics in Historical Narratives].
Suggested Readings:
1—Dallacqua, L. (2023). Games e a “ciência de Galton”: referências à eugenia no jogo eletrônico Red Dead Redemption 2. ArtCultura, 25(46), 259–276.
2—Chapman, A., Foka, A., & Westin, J. (2016). Introduction: what is historical game studies? Rethinking History, 21(3), 358–371.
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about Dr. Carvalho, please click here.
Join us for this engaging discussion!
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April 19, 2024
Speaker:
Dr. Mércio Pereira Gomes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Anthropologist, Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil.Former President of Funai (National Indigenous People Foundation) from 2003 to 2007.
Presentation:
“Genética: a última fronteira para se entender os povos indígenas e sua mestiçagem no Brasil".
[Genetics: The Final Frontier in Understanding Indigenous Peoples and Their Miscegenation in Brazil].”
Suggested Readings:
1—Gomes, M. P. (2019). O Brasil Inevitável: Ética, Mestiçagem e Borogodó. Topbooks. Read Book.
2—Gomes, M. P. (2012). Índios no Brasil. Contexto. Read Book.
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about Dr. Gomes, please click here.
Join us for this engaging discussion!
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March 15, 2024
Speaker:
Dr. Ilana Löwy (Paris, France)
Emerita Senior Research Fellow at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.
Presentation:
“Zika e a questão complexa do aborto 'eugênico' por indicação fetal. [Zika and the tangled issue of an 'eugenic' abortion for fetal indication].”
New book by the author: Löwy, I. (2024). Viruses and Reproductive Injustice. Johns Hopkins University Press. Please access more information about the book here.
Suggested Readings:
1—Löwy, I. (2020). Abortion for fetal anomaly: how to speak about a difficult topic. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, 36. Read Article.
2—Paul, D. Β., & Löwy, I. (2018). On Objectivity in Prenatal Genetic Care. OBM Genetics, 2(2), 1–1. Read Article.
3—Löwy, I. (2024). Chapter Two (Fetuses: Women, Doctors, and the Law) from 'Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil'. Johns Hopkins University Press. (Attached on our website).
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about Dr. Löwy, please click here.
Join us for this engaging discussion!
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February 16, 2024
Speaker:
M.Sc. Alexandre Verçosa Greco (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Master's graduate (2023) from the Graduate Program in History of Sciences and Health at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz.
Professor at the Department of Education of the State of Rio de Janeiro, SEEDUC/RJ.
Presentation:
“O médico Mário Victor de Assis Pacheco no debate sobre o controle populacional (1968-1985)” [Doctor Mário Victor de Assis Pacheco in the debate on population control (1968-1985)].
Explore Previous Works:
To learn more about Mr. Greco, please click here to access his Master's thesis.
Join us for this engaging discussion!
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January 19, 2024
Speakers:
Dr. Rosanna Dent
New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey, United States.
Dr. Ana Carolina Vimieiro Gomes
Federal University of Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Presentation: “Listening Party: Trabalho de Campo por um Geneticista e um Técnico” [Fieldwork by a Geneticist and a Technician].
See Website: https://hogenetica.org/
*The speakers recommend that group members familiarize themselves with the website and listen to interviews they find interesting before the session.
Explore Previous Works: To learn more about Dr. Gomes, please click here. For more information about Dr. Dent, click here.
Join us for this engaging discussion!
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November 17, 2023
Guest: Geandra Munareto, Postdoctoral Researcher, State University of Maringá, Brazil.
Presentation: “Raça e eugenia no contexto do pós-segunda guerra: o Pioneer Fund e a Mankind Quarterly como objetos de estudo”
Previous works/Website: https://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/bitstream/tede/7843/2/Tese%20-%20GEANDRA%20DENARDI%20MUNARETO.pdf (PhD Thesis).
Reading: Article attached. Please log in to access it. Kindly, do not share.
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October 20, 2023
Guest: Alessandra Santana Soares e Barros, Full Professor at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.
Presentation: “Deficiência, diagnóstico de anomalias fetais e aborto: o caso da Síndrome de Down no Brasil”.
Previous works/Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alessandra-Barros-2
Reading: Attached are three texts by Alessandra Barros (please log in to see).
Group Conveners
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William deJong-Lambert
William deJong-Lambert is a Professor of History at Bronx Community College, CUNY who will be spending the spring semester 2025 teaching at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul as a Fulbright scholar while researching a biography of Theodosius Dobzhansky.
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Paula Habib
Paula Habib is a Professor of History at the Federal University Fluminense (UFF/Brazil). Habib´s research specializes in history of agriculture, genetics, history of biology and eugenics during the first decades of the 20 th century. She holds a Ph.D. in History of Science and Health by Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Marcelo Lima Loreto
Visiting Scholar at Columbia University (Institute of Latin American Studies), United
States. 2022-2023.
Science journalist working for Folha de São Paulo and other media.
Research fellow at the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. 2021-2022. Project, here.
Ph.D. in History of Science by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2019, Brazil.
Dissertation thesis, here.