ISES :: Institute for Social and European Studies Foundation

Above: Professor Marco Antonio da Silva Ramos, Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil

by Andrew Bacchus (MA student) University of Waterloo, Canada

Professor Marco Antonio da Silva Ramos, a visiting Brasilian professor from the University of Sao Paolo, treated ISES students and XVI Summer University participants to a historical audio tour of Brasil using several creative pieces from Brasilian musicians in a session titled “Contacts and Influences Between Classical and Popular Brasilian Music.” He framed the session using the work of Olavo Bilac’s “Musica Brasilera.” 

Students learned that music is culture. Music builds interconnectedness. Music is what Brasilians listened to when the country was first hit with an inflation crisis almost thirty years ago. Ramos remembers when he had to buy items from the grocery store in the morning, because he would not be able to afford the items in the night; grocery stores would change prices every two hours. As a Canadian participant, I was curious to know if Brasilian universities and students utilized music to outreach to poorer neighbourhoods, or favelas.

Professor Ramos responded that yes in fact students do conduct outreach, but also a professor in Brasil has four main duties: (1) teach undergraduate and graduate courses, (2) conduct research for the institution, (3) participate in administration and international affairs, similar to his visit and lecture at ISES and, (4) participate in ‘extension programmes,’ which are courses for non-students; it is in these extension programmes that students are organised to visit favelas. 

Above: Markus Sabadello (MA student), European Peace University

From culture, the next session focused on communication with Markus Sabadello from the European Peace University, speaking on the topic of “Global Civil Society and the Role of ICTs.” His main point was that even though it is easier to communicate in our globalized civil society, the organisation of that communication as either centralised or decentralised will affect the efficiency and security of the communication.

Sabadello strongly believes that the technical structures of communication need to align with social structures, because right now, Sabadello believes that there is disproportional preference for the security aspect of communication more than the freedom aspect.

One of the quotes in Sabadello’s presentation was “a community will evolve only when a people control their own communication” (Fanon).