Join us for the next lecture in the ‘Western Hemisphere Lecture Series’!
This time we are pleased to host Sean T. Mitchell from Rutgers University, Newark with a lecture titled “In the Orbit of Empire: Space, Race, and Inequality in Brazil and the United States”.
Tuesday, May 20 2026
5:00 pm
Room 2.118
What?
Drawing on more than two decades of ethnographic research, this lecture analyzes the shifting dynamics of power and inequality in the Western Hemisphere, specifically within Brazil and the United States. The discussion bridges two major research trajectories: the first examines the history of Brazil’s satellite launch base and the protracted land conflicts between the spaceport and Afro-Brazilian quilombo communities; the second investigates the politics of poverty reduction and the intensification of political antagonism in contemporary Brazil. While both projects are grounded in Brazilian ethnography, they also reveal the influence of the United States on regional politics. By juxtaposing these disparate cases, the lecture sheds light on the changing nature of inequality and power in the 21st century.
Who?
Sean T. Mitchell is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rutgers University, Newark. A political anthropologist, his work examines the politics of inequality in Brazil and the United States. He is the author of Constellations of Inequality: Space, Race, and Utopia in Brazil (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and co-editor of Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope, Despair, and Resistance in Brazil (Rutgers University Press, 2021) and Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency (University of Chicago Press, 2011), among other works.
Where?
ASC UW, Dobra 55, room 2.118
