UW-Madison kicks off emerging powers events with focus on Brazil

Brazilian Foreign Trade Secretary Welber Barral and the Consul General of Brazil in Chicago, Ambassador João Almino, will visit the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus on Sept. 23-24, for two events focused on commerce and socio-political issues in U.S.-Brazil relations.

The Brazil Initiative events are part of  a series of emerging powers symposia launched by UW–Madison in an effort to produce collaborative research, teaching, and outreach projects with high-level practitioners from Brazil, India, and China – three of the world’s emerging economic and political powers, also known as BRICs nations.

“The ultimate goal of the initiative is to bring faculty and alumni together with private foundations, businesses, and state agencies to help Wisconsin better understand and engage with Brazil and other emerging powers, who are gaining momentum in an emerging global economy,” says Severino Albuquerque, faculty director of the Brazil Initiative.

Foreign Trade Secretary Barral will address local business leaders, senior managers, and attorneys about U.S. business opportunities in Brazil during a networking breakfast on September 23rd, organized by the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Wisconsin School of Business. Read more details on this event.

Barral will also be a guest speaker later in the day on trade relations between Brazil and the U.S. in the 21st century, during the second annual Joaquim Nabuco Conference – designed to examine emerging issues in U.S.-Brazil relations, including energy policy, trade, global governance, and the fight against racial discrimination.

Ambassador João Almino will offer closing remarks at the Joaquim Nabuco Conference on Friday, Sept. 24. Click here for the Conference schedule, which is free and open to the public with registration.

UW-Madison has been working to identify strategic partnerships with practitioners and universities in Brazil, India and China, who wish to expand their reach outside national boundaries to match their growing economic and political influence on the world stage. “It is a paradigm shift, and that paradigm shift is refocusing the university in educating graduates that are going to see the emerging powers as a key group of partners and Brazil as a key country,” commented UW–Madison Dean for International Studies Gilles Bousquet in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article.

A variety of UW–Madison units are sponsoring the events, including the Division of International Studies, the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies (LACIS) program, the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), Global Studies, and the Law School.  

For more on this and the other emerging powers initiatives at UW–Madison click here.