Confronting Whiteness in Brazil and the U.S. with Vânia Penha-Lopes

Brazil Unfiltered

In this episode of Brazil Unfiltered, James Naylor Green speaks with Vânia Penha-Lopes, Professor of Sociology at Bloomfield College, in New Jersey. Vânia is co-chair of the Brazil Seminar at Columbia University (2008-present) and was a member of the executive committee of the Brazilian Studies Association-BRASA (2010-14). A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr. Penha-Lopes graduated with honors from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (1982). She is also a graduate of New York University, with a Master’s degree in Anthropology (1987) and a Ph.D. in Sociology (1999). As a post-doctoral fellow at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (2006-07), she did research on the first graduating class of Brazilian university quota students. In addition to a number of articles, she is the author of the books The Presidential Elections of Trump and Bolsonaro, Whiteness, and the Nation"(2022), Confronting Affirmative Action: University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice (2017), Pioneiros: Cotistas na Universidade Brasileira (2013), and co-editor of Religiosidade e Performance: Diálogos Contemporâneos (2015).