Conference Participation

Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Citizenship: Working with  Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazilian Universities/Ações Afirmativas, Diversidade e Cidadania: o trabalho com a Justiça Social e Direitos Humanos  nas Universidades Brasileiras

Abstract: This panel examines a global collaboration that emerged from a faculty delegation to Brazil and has continued to generate meaningful activities and transnational collaboration grounded in racial and economic justice. The collaboration began with participation in the 5th World Conference on Remedies to Racial & Ethnic Economic Inequality at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES) in Vitória, Brazil. Since that event, faculty, staff, and students have been engaged in relationship-building across institutions and communities in Minnesota and Espírito Santo. Delegation members were purposely selected for their commitments to equity, racial justice, and desire to engage with Brazilian schools, community organizations, and scholars to foster dialogue on how race and class operate across cultural contexts. Lessons learned highlight the transformative way the delegation disrupted traditional institutional silos by bringing together faculty from distinct disciplines. Shared experiences abroad cultivated trust, humility, and an appreciation of complementary expertise. Members expressed a commitment for sustained collaboration and desire to reject historic patterns of academic tourism and one-way information exchange. The panel will highlight how over the past nine years, the delegation has produced enduring outcomes: reciprocal faculty and student exchanges, collaborative research, faculty residencies at UFES, and work with native communities in Espírito Santo and Minnesota. Panelists will present their reflections, lessons learned, and suggestions for adoption by other higher education institutions on how intentional faculty delegations can move beyond symbolic internationalization to produce long-term, community-engaged collaboration.

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