Living Alongside: Activism, Agency, and Infrastructure Development in the Biodiversity Hotspot of Southern Bahia, Brazil

press release: Please join UW Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program. The events are free and open to the public.

Room 206 Ingraham Hall - 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706

Presented by Dr. Colleen Scanlan Lyons, associate research professor, University of Colorado-Boulder.

About the presentation: With some of the last remaining intact remnants of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, Southern Bahia has long been known as a global biodiversity “hotspot,” and also as a region with a rich historical and cultural heritage. But today this region is increasingly known for something else—a large-scale railroad and port development project, called Porto Sul, has rendered Southern Bahia the site of one of the largest infrastructure development projects in not only Brazil, but in all of Latin America. This talk examines how regional social-environmental leaders are struggling to create certain opportunities, and contest others, to advance their particular histories, identities, hopes, and dreams for one of the most important tropical forest regions of the world.... Throughout, we will consider development, activism, conceptions of progress, and our place as scholars, scribes, and allies in dynamic processes shaping the world today.