SEMINAR: RELIGIOUS RHETORIC
Kilian McCurrie, Ph.D.
Religious Rhetoric in Post-Colonial Brazil and the
Politicization of Liberation Theology
Research Proposal
Brazil is one of the largest nations in the Americas and an emerging economic and political player on the global stage. Unfortunately, many people do not have an adequate understanding or historical knowledge of Brazil – let alone of its political and socioeconomic issues. There are only a handful of graduate programs in the world dedicated to the field of Brazilian studies. There is a definite need for a wider range of publications and literature on the subject of Brazil. The problem I choose to explore is one of religious rhetoric concerning the political and religious development of Brazil 0 specifically the period in between 1960 and 1990, when dramatic politics forever changed the face of Brazil and the United States’ attitudes toward Brazil. Specifically, I believe more people can benefit from understanding Brazil’s socioeconomic situation through the lens of religious rhetoric and the relationship between government, religion, and the masses of oppressed citizens living in abject poverty and a post-military dictatorship that did and still involves Liberation Theology and related religious rhetoric movements.
There are some overarching questions I would like to answer through my research, but also many specific questions I will direct special attention to. The main questions are as follows, in order from more general to more specific:
How was religious rhetoric used during the military regime and coup in Brazil 1964 until 1985 when the regime ended?
What role did Liberation Theology play in the military regime – for or against it?
How was religious rhetoric used in the United States by the Johnson Administration to support the military regime in Brazil of ‘64-‘85? And the Carter administration?
How did/does the Vatican, a powerful pseudo-political group, employ religious rhetoric in the Liberation Theology movement?
How has Liberation Theology affected Brazil’s political and social climate today? Did it have any positive or negative effects on the regime changes in Brazil?
What role did religious rhetoric play in the uncovering of the atrocities of the Brazilian military dictatorship? And in the United States’ foreign policy on Brazil?
I will be answering these questions in the form of a publishable research essay (appropriate for graduate school admissions, as well as interested readers) with a strong thesis as a result of my findings. Traditional academic research paper in MLA style is my format of choice, with headings for each topic or section (somewhat outlined above).
My primary methods of research will be library texts on the history of pre-military Brazil and the development of Brazil to present day, news articles that focus on current and recent Liberation Theology issues, and websites dedicated to the study of so-called “third world religion” that cover Liberation theology, prominent figures and groups involved in the religious development of Brazil, as well as the beginning, progression, and end of the military regime in Brazil. I may or may not use video sources and/or previously taped videos of interviews with relevant figures (such as James Green, of Brown University).
EUROPEAN HISTORY
Frederic Kopp, Ph.D.
EUROPEAN HISTORY
Frederic Kopp, Ph.D.
An Exploration of the Effects of
Portuguese Political History
Unlike colonies and oppressed nations, the colonizer, after decolonization, is on a more privileged side of the decolonization and the new national culture that follows. Frantz Fanon, a Martinique-born psychiatrist from the Algerian War, writes a lot about French decolonization and the national culture, identity, and literature after decolonization in Algeria and other French colonies. He has covered in great detail the struggles of an ex-colony reclaiming national culture after so much oppression and manipulation of national narrative and history – but what I would like to explore, is the Colonizer’s journey after post-colonialism. The colonizer, most commonly European or Western, does not just disappear – though they may diminish and try to move on from their controversial and condemned past.
In Portugal specifically, I am curious about the national identity that has grown out of a culmination of a colonial history, a fascist past, and modern day intellect and scholarly or creative literature.
What is their national narrative now? What is their current attitude and how have they grown as a nation since their establishment of democracy?
It is similar to exploring how the U.S. has come to have such strong nationalism and values, regardless of the fact that the nation was built on very different values – or lack thereof in regard to oppression – and the values we claim to hold now that we don’t necessarily practice as a nation. It’s the same, even not involving colonization, when we look at Germany or Russia and how far they have come since their own difficult histories such as the Holocaust or the USSR. Nations change, political regimes change, and so do the national cultures.
On a mundane level, I want to know, who are the voices of modern Portugal? How have they dealt with their national past? Ever since the fascist, oppressive, pro-colonial regime of the Novo Estado and Oliveira Salazar/Marcello Caetano (who was interestingly enough, Brazilian born), and then the overthrow of the Portuguese government and the Carnation Revolution in 1974, fairly recently (decolonization of the Portuguese colonies), how has Portuguese democracy affected the
Portuguese identity?
