Course Syllabus

POR 3502 Brazilian Culture:

Cultura Brasileira & Mega-Eventos

Summer 2015 (Rio de Janeiro)

Co-instructors:

            Dr. Elizabeth Ginway, University of Florida (eginway@ufl.edu)

            Andréa C. L. Ferreira, University of Florida (deia@ufl.edu)

 

Office Hours:

Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm, or by appointment (2nd floor - IBEU Library)

 

DESCRIPTION:

This course seeks to understand Brazilian culture as the country prepares to host the second of two mega-events, the Summer Olympics 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Sport competitions, international showmanship, and infrastructural changes offer a unique opportunity to examine politics, race and citizenship. By reading a variety of texts from newspapers, academic journals, crônicas, fiction and film, students will approach Brazilian culture from a variety of perspectives in order to understand the social, ecological and political implications of these events on its citizenry.

 

Undergraduates and non-FLAS students must do the assigned readings and attend the two afternoon sessions (Tuesday guest lecture and the POR 3502 class taught by Ginway and Ferreira) and hand in written work, including blogs, in order to fulfill their attendance and writing requirements. FLAS and graduate students will also be required to participate in a Monday seminar, do additional readings, and prepare a presentation.

 

OBJECTIVES:

• Gain insight into Brazilian culture and society, national myths of race, identity and modernity
• Understand the context of the current debates and the social, political and economic issues surrounding the mega-events taking place in Brazil
• Improve spoken and written Portuguese via class activities and assignments

 

Outcomes: at the end of the course students will be able to:

• Understand the history of sports and politics in Brazil
• Analyze contemporary news and events with greater perspective and insight
• Knowledgeably discuss Brazil’s quest for international recognition in a critical manner
• Relate the mega-events to Brazilian identity in terms of race, class and citizenship

 

Required Materials:

• Dave Zirin’s Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014

See the syllabus for links to online readings, films and others texts can be found on E-Learning Canvas under the tab RESOURCES.

 

FLAS & GRADUATE STUDENTS

GRADING FOR FLAS and graduate STUDENTS: In order to fulfill the FLAS requirements of 140 contact hours, you are expected to participate in weekly afternoon activities. FLAS is not a research scholarship, but a program for linguistic and cultural enrichment. This course is NOT a graduate seminar. It is a topic to practice language skills in both oral and written practice, although grading is based on fulfilling the exercise to the best of one’s ability, not on linguistic skills.

* IBEU supplies attendance sheets for students to sign in for every afternoon class, excursion or workshop. It is the students’ responsibility to sign in. A point will be counted off for each hour missed, and two points per absence for lectures.

 

FLAS SEMINAR, LECTURES AND CULTURE CLASS

15% Attendance, preparation, participation. The afternoon classes will be held on Thursdays – exceptions: Wednesday (July 8) and Tuesday (August 4), respectively. On the 6^th week, students will bring articles tied to the course themes and their own interests for class discussion.

 

BLOGS   20% 4 blogs (5 points each). The blogs are due on Wednesdays, for the first five weeks. These must be posted on Canvas under the DISCUSSIONS tab. Write a comment on what you learned from the Tuesday lecture. The notes from the first lecture will be posted on Canvas as well, if you have doubts about content/vocabulary.

Blog grading:

• Engaging, analytical blog             4-5
• Summarizing blog                        3-4
• Opinion blog                                1-2
• No blog                                        0

 

15% MONDAY FLAS SEMINAR (required for FLAS students only, but others are welcome). This seminar entails discussion of all weekly readings, plus each student must do a presentation on some aspect of Brazilian culture, based on one of the readings. Participation means working effectively in groups, demonstrating familiarity with the readings, and participating in class discussions in this seminar.

Presentation: as a presenter you are expected to provide a Power Point presentation, a bibliography, and discuss a topic related to the course and Brazilian Culture.

• Due to the overextended duration of the presentations thus far, we decided to change the original format.  From now on, the presentations should last 10 minutes (without breaks) at most, and should have up to 3 questions at the end.  Try to keep it to 5 slides, thus avoiding any type of delay.  Students who have not yet presented will not be punished on the superficiality of their approach to a topic, since we had to reduce the time allotted for each student; and students that have already presented will be graded according to the original parameters.

Presentation grading:

• Oral presentation, Power Point, bibliography, discussion        13-15  
• Read presentation, Power Point, bibliography                         10-12  
• Read presentation, with Power Point only                                6-9    
• Read presentation with no supporting documents                   3-5    
• Regular Attendance, no presentation                                       1-2    
• Low Attendance, no presentation                                              0      

 

1. READING/WRITING

50% 5 weekly reaction papers (10% each). Papers are due on Fridays by noon and should incorporate weekly readings. The Friday papers reflect the student’s capacity for making connections between readings and lectures. The papers are thematic, examining some aspect of Brazilian culture provided by the weekly readings and lectures in the culture course. For full credit, grammatical errors must be corrected and the paper re-submitted along with the original version the following week. Papers must be handwritten in pen (not in pencil) skipping lines (so that we may add our comments), and 2-3 pages in length. Assignments will be given a √ (for summaries without references to readings) or √+ (for papers with reflection and references to readings).

Paper grading:

• Five handed in with correct grammar and/or corrected versions     45-50
• Four assignments with corrections                                                   39-44
• Three with corrections                                                                      33-38  
• Two with corrections                                                                         27-32  
• One with correction                                                                           21-26    
• No assignments 0    

 

The first paper will be due on the first Friday by 12:00 pm to Ginway or Ferreira or left at the library desk on the second floor. The re-written form is due on or before the following Friday, along with the second assignment. No late essays will be accepted – 0 points after due date, although assignments may be turned in early if a student has to travel. If you cannot write your paper by hand, it is your responsibility to print it out and turn it in on time, not on IBEU printers.

In case of illness, please contact Lorena Figueiredo, Leonor Falcão

  

NON-FLAS STUDENTS:

1. LECTURES, WORKSHOPS AND EXCURSIONS

30% Attendance and participation in discussions, lectures, class. Participation in the afternoon session lecture and POR 3502 class taught by Ginway/Ferreira is expected. Missing one afternoon class will be excused, but after that, 2.5% will be subtracted from your grade. One optional excursion or activity may be used to make up one weekly absence, given that the student writes a 2-page reaction paper about the excursion/activity. Participation in workshops and excursion is not required, although it is encouraged. IBEU supplies attendance sheets for students to sign in for every afternoon class, excursion and workshop. It is the students’ responsibility to sign in.

 

20% 4 blogs (5 points each). The blogs are due on Wednesday, 2^nd through 5^th week. These must be posted on Canvas under the DISCUSSIONS tab. Just write a brief comment on what you learned or came away with from the lecture. The notes from the first lecture will be posted there as well, for those who will be missing the first week.

Blog grading:

• Engaging, analytical blog                                 4-5
• Summarizing blog                                            3-4
• Opinion blog                                                    1-2
• No blog                                                            0

 

2. WRITING

50% 5 weekly reaction papers (10% each). Papers are due on Fridays at 12:00 pm. Weekly readings/films should take about 2-3 hours to complete and should be done before the POR 3502 class. The Friday papers reflect the student’s capacity for making connections between readings and lectures. The papers are thematic, examining some aspect of Brazilian culture provided by the weekly readings and lectures in the culture course. For full credit, grammatical errors must be corrected and the paper re-submitted along with the original version the following week. Papers must be handwritten in pen (not in pencil SKIPPING LINES (to facilitate corrections and comments), and 1-2 pages in length. Assignments will be given a √ (for summaries without references to readings) or √+ (for papers with reflection and references to readings).

Paper grading:

• Five handed in with correct grammar and/or corrected versions    45-50
• Four assignments with corrections                                                  39-44    
• Three with corrections                                                                     33-38
• Two with corrections                                                                        27-32  
• One with correction                                                                          21-26
• No assignments 0    

 

The first paper will be due on the first Friday by 12:00 pm either handed to the instructors or left at the library desk on the second floor. The re-written form is due on or before the following Friday, along with the second assignment. No late essays will be accepted – 0 points after due date, although assignments may be turned in early if a student has to travel. If you cannot write your paper by hand, it is your responsibility to print it out not at IBEU and turn it in on time. In case of illness, please contact Lorena Figueiredo.

 

Policies and regulations:

Attendance, participation and preparation are required, since this is an intensive summer course. Students will be expected to show appropriate class demeanor regarding respect for fellow students and instructor, turning off phones. http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academicguide.htm

 

Reminders about Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is the attempt to represent the work of another as the product of one’s own thought, whether the other’s work is oral or written (including electronic), published or unpublished. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, quoting [“cutting and pasting”] oral or written materials without citation on written materials or in oral presentations; submitting work produced by an on-line translation service or the translation feature of an on-line dictionary as your own. Misrepresentation - Any act or omission with intent to deceive a teacher for academic advantage. Misrepresentation includes lying to a teacher to increase your grade; lying or misrepresenting facts when confronted with an allegation of academic honesty. Bribery, Conspiracy: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/barkin/plagiarism.html/

 

Restrictions on the use of Google Translate: Students are not allowed to use Google Translate other than to look up words as a dictionary. There have been instances where students have used this tool to write entire paragraphs and essays –this is considered academic dishonesty.

Students will be penalized if we find this to be the case (0 on the assignment).

 

REMINDERS:

Students are responsible for acquiring a copy of our text (Dave Zirin’s Brazil’s Dance with the Devil) and for accessing the online readings and the readings available on Canvas, University of Florida’s E-Learning (Canvas) platform.

SCOPE OF THE CULTURE COURSE:

The culture course is a language class based on the theory of content-based learning. For this reason it is POR language prefix, not the POW content prefix. NB: It is not a program for research, i.e., a graduate-level class. The readings are used to stimulate discussion and writing activities.

As such, the course takes its goals from the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21^st Century, which focuses on five general areas (the 5 Cs):

 

• Communication: to communicate effectively in Portuguese
• Cultural awareness: to gain knowledge and understanding of different cultures in Brazil
• Connections: to link the language with other disciplines and acquiring new information
• Comparison: to develop awareness of similarities and differences among language and culture systems around the world
• Community: Using Portuguese to participate in communities at home and around the world

 

METHODOLOGY AND ACTIVITIES

This course stresses communication skills in Portuguese. Every effort will be made to involve students and make them active participants in the course. To help students succeed in this course, the class will engage in a variety of activities and assignments, including but not limited to activities such as the following:

• Oral and written communication using new vocabulary and grammar
• Interactive, sociolinguistic practice and functions through group work
• Reading activities and exercises, based on intensive [short] and extensive reading
• Writing activities ranging from short paragraphs to short compositions
• Integration of skills in projects and tasks, in small groups or as a class
• Video/audio-based exercises
• Presentations, question and answer sessions and discussions

 

Grading Scale

The final grade scale is as follows:

A = 100-93	C(S) = 76-73
A- = 92-90	C-(U) = 72-70
B+ = 89-87	D+ = 69-67
B = 86-83	D = 66-63
B- = 82-80	D- = 62-60
C+ = 79-77	E = 59-0

* For UF students, the grade earned in this course will affect your overall GPA, other students will receive transfer credits

 

The idea behind this course is to offer a variety of readings from diverse sources, offering varying perspectives, levels of difficulty and different media, including newspapers, books, scholarly and popular and audio-visual sources—such as films and news clips in both English and Portuguese. Non-FLAS students are welcome to do the FLAS readings.

Since students have differing levels of Portuguese and diverse interests and degree programs, the idea is to find a text that an individual student can relate to, although ideally students would read or view all of them. FLAS and grad students are expected to do both sets of readings.

 

Cronograma (Assignments)*

*All readings are on Canvas [E-Learning] or online (and should be done before the lecture)

Week 1		Sustentabilidade e cultura no Brasil moderno	Paper I
June / Monday	29	FLAS introduction, set up student presentation dates/schedule Exercícios de vocabulário/discussão 1. Matthew Wheeland, “Brazil struggles with drought and pollution as Olympics loom large,” The Guardian (05/04/2015) à http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/04/brazil-drought-2016-olympic-games-rio-de-janiero-rio-20-climate-change 2. Juliana Machado Ferreira, “Ações de sustentabilidade propostas pelos Governos para as Olimpíadas Rio 2016,” Revista do meio ambiente àhttp://revista.rebia.org.br/especial-olimpiadas/485-acoes-de-sustentabilidade-propostas-pelos-governos-para-as-olimpiadas-rio-2016   *Recommended reading (optional): Rômulo Sampaio and David Cassuto, “The Importance of Information and Participation Principles in Environmental Law in Brazil, the United States and Beyond,” RECIEL (03/25/2013) à http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/reel.12019/epdf
Tuesday	30	Prof. Rômulo Sampaio: Ecologia, sutentabilidade Take notes for blog that is due Wednesday on Canvas	Blog due Wed. 5pm
July/ Thursday	2	Ginway’s POR 3502 Class 1. Dave Zirin, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil [chap. 1: “Brazil: ‘A Country for Everyone’”] 2. Alexandre Mansur, “Olimpíadas terão comida orgânica e até medalha com ouro reciclado,” Época (05/15/2015) à http://epoca.globo.com/colunas-e-blogs/blog-do-planeta/noticia/2015/05/olimpiadas-terao-comida-organica-e-ate-medalha-com-ouro-reciclado.html 3. Bruno Doro, “Por que o Rio-2016 vai fazer Bolt comer ovo de galinha caipira,” UOL Olimpíadas Canvas   Questions and Discussion of Readings Group work and discussion of topics based on texts	*   Friday Paper 1 due tomorrow by noon NO LATE WORK   Passeio
Week 2		Música, cultura e futebol	Paper 2 & Blog 2
July / Monday	6	FLAS Readings PRESENTATIONS: _______________________________________ 1. DaMatta, Roberto. “Antropologia do óbvio” [em português: Brazilian “art” in futebol vs. European “force”] Canvas 2. Nelson Rodrigues, “Marido fiel” de A vida como ela é [conto 1955: the homosocial world of soccer and the traditional role of women in Brazilian society] Canvas 3. Paulo Lins, “Destino de artista” Cenas de Favela. Ed. Nelson de Oliveira [Fiction: two rival composers battle to garner the prize for the samba enredo-story by the author of novel Cidade de Deus] Canvas *Recommended readings (optional): 1. Comentário sobre “O futebol mulato” de Gilberto Freyre [ideas from 1938 that still circulate regarding race and the “Dionysian” aspects of Brazilian soccer] http://www.efdeportes.com/efd73/freyre.htm 2. James Reevell, “Entenda o escândalo de corrupção da FIFA,” BBC Brasil (05/27/2015) à http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/noticias/2015/05/150527_entenda_fifa_lab
Tuesday	7	Prof. Ricardo Pessanha Música brasileira Take notes for the blog	* Blog 2 due tomorrow (Wed 5pm)
Wednesday	8	Ginway’s POR 3502 Class 1. Dave Zirin, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil [chap. 4: “Futebol: The Journey from Daring to Fear”] 2. McGowan and Pessanha, “The Brazilian Sound”   [Introduction; selection on origins of samba] Canvas 3. Roberto DaMatta, “O que é torcer?” [a lighter look at the importance of soccer in Brazilian life] Canvas   Review of Pessanha’s lecture Nationalism: uses and misuses of mythology of soccer and samba Questions and Discussion of Readings Group work and discussion of topics based on texts	ReminderPaper 2 due Friday along with Rewrite from Week I
Week 3		As favelas e os mega-eventos
Monday	13	FLAS Readings PRESENTATIONS: _______________________________________ 1. João do Rio, “Os acampamentos da miséria” (1917) [crônica] à http://www.jangadabrasil.com.br/revista/novembro84/al84011b.asp [Famed Brazilian cronista visits the Morro de Santo Antônio, using the city within the city theme] 2. Marcos Alvito, “Abandono e preconceito isolam as favelas” (2001) [Interview with academic who lived and studied the favela Acari] Canvas 3. Romulo Costa Mattos, “Megaeventos, remoções de favelas e reforma do porto no Rio de Janeiro no tempo presente,” XXVII Simpósio Nacional de História, ANPUH (07/2013) àhttp://www.snh2013.anpuh.org/resources/anais/27/1371350759_ARQUIVO_MATTOS_ANPUH_2013.pdf •Recommended readings (optional): 1. Vinicius Konchinski, “Paes muda discurso e desapropria sem acordo casa de vizinhos da Rio-2016,” UOL (03/21/2015) Canvas 2. Janice Perlman, Preface to The Myth of Marginality, 1976. [Views from pioneer in favela/urban studies doing research during the military dictatorship]   Canvas
Tuesday	14	Profa. Mariana Cavalcanti: As favelas cariocas Take notes for blog	* Blog 3 due tomorrow (Wed)
Thursday	16	Ginway’s POR 3502 Class (Thursday), July 16th 1. Dave Zirin, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil [chap. 7: “Target Favelas”] Canvas 2. McCann, “Urban Crisis” [Contemporary history of Brazil’s urban centers] Canvas 3. Brodwyn Fischer, A Poverty of Rights “Epilogue” 305-318 [historical overview of favela residents] Canvas   Review of Cavalcanti’s lecture Favelas, Brazilian society, and the Olympics Questions and Discussion of Readings Group work and discussion of topics based on texts	* Friday Paper 3 due tomorrow/ Rewrite from Week II
Week 4		A política, os protestos e os mega-eventos	Paper 4 Blog 4
Monday	20	FLAS Readings PRESENTATIONS: _______________________________________ 1. Raquel Weiss, “Que diabos está acontecendo? Uma Análise em três atos.” Filosofismos, sociologismos e um pouco de achismo. Socionautas (21/06/2013) à http://raquelweiss.blogspot.com/2013/06/que-diabos-esta-acontecendo-uma-analise.html 2. Renato Janine Ribeiro, “O Brasil e a democracia de protesto,” Matrizes/USP v. 8, n.1 (2014/1) à http://www.revistas.usp.br/matrizes/article/viewFile/82933/85969 3. “O enorme fosso entre as ruas e a política institucional. Entrevista especial com Rudá Ricci,” Instituto Humanitas Unisinos (03/17/2015) à http://www.ihu.unisinos.br/entrevistas/540910-entre-as-ruas-e-o-estado-ha-um-fosso-vazio-entrevista-especial-com-ruda-ricci *Recommended readings (optional): 1. Daniel Buarque, “Mídia internacional vê protesto, ‘mais velho, mais branco e mais rico’ do que os de 2013,” UOL Notícias (03/16/2015) à http://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2015/03/16/imprensa-internacional-ve-protesto-mais-velho-mais-branco-e-mais-rico-de-que-os-de-2013.htm 2. Roberto DaMatta, “O modo de navegação social: a malandragem e o ‘jeitinho’,” O que faz o Brasil, brasil? (93-106) à Canvas
Tuesday	21	Prof. Fernando Lattman-Weltman: A política brasileira Take notes for blog	* Blog 4 due tomorrow (Wed)
Thursday	23	Ferreira’s POR 3502 Class Review of Lattman-Weltman’s lecture 1. Dave Zirin, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil [chap. 3: “ Oh, Lula!”] 2. Renata Mendonça, “Existe base para impeachment de Dilma?” BBC Brasil (03/09/2015) à http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/noticias/2015/03/150309_dilma_impeachment_base_rm 3. Fernando Lattman-Weltman, “A caixa de Pandora,” O Tao e o Tal da Política – O Retorno (05/19/2015) [Blog do professor] à http://otaoeatal.blogspot.com.br/2015/05/a-caixa-de-pandora.html Politics, Protests, social media, and politics Questions and Discussion of texts Group work and discussion of topics based on texts	* Reminder Paper due Friday Rewrite from week III
Week 5		Olimpíadas no Rio de Janeiro	Paper 5& Blog 5
Monday	27	FLAS Readings PRESENTATIONS: _______________________________________ 1. Sobre o custo das Olimpíadas - “Setor privado financia 57% do custo das Olimpíadas, diz Paes,” Exame (05/22/2015) à http://exame.abril.com.br/brasil/noticias/setor-privado-financia-57-do-custo-das-olimpiadas-diz-paes 2. Roberto DaMatta, “Em torno da dialética entre igualdade e hierarquia: Notas sobre as imagens e representações dos jogos olímpicos e do futebol no Brasil,” – A bola corre mais que os homens   (172-204) on Canvas 3. “Megaeventos esportivos: bom ou mau negócio?” Entrevista com o urbanista Carlos Vainer, Revista do Idec, n. 173 (02/2013) àhttp://www.idec.org.br/em-acao/revista/economize-energia/materia/megaeventos-esportivos-bom-ou-mau-negocio *Recommended readings (optional): 1. Angélica Fernandes, “Maiores legados dos Jogos de 2016 só serão totalmente concluídos após o evento,” O Dia (05/03/2015) à http://odia.ig.com.br/noticia/rio-de-janeiro/2015-05-03/maiores-legados-dos-jogos-de-2016-so-serao-totalmente-concluidos-apos-o-evento.html 2. Slideshow, “Brazilian Slum Dwellers Push Back Against Olympic Development,” The New York Times (2013) à http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/02/27/world/americas/20120228-BRAZIL.html?_r=0
Tuesday	28	Profa. Maria Clara Wasserman: As Olimpíadas no Rio Take notes for blog	*Blog 5 due tomorrow (Wed)
Thursday	30	Ferreira’s POR 3502 Class 1. Dave Zirin, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil [chap. 5 “Killing Santa”; sections of chap. 6 on “Londres” & “Qatar”] 2. Nivaldo Souza, “Defesa gastará mais de RS$ 400 mi com Olimpíada, diz ministro” (05/20/2015) à http://exame.abril.com.br/brasil/noticias/defesa-gastara-mais-de-r-400-mi-com-olimpiada-diz-wagner 3. Sérgio Rangel, “Força Nacional fará segurança das arenas olímpicas,” Folha de São Paulo (05/06/2015) à http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/esporte/2015/05/1625721-forca-nacional-fara-seguranca-das-arenas-olimpicas.shtml   Review of Maria Clara’s lecture Rio 2016: the mega-event’s social, cultural, and economic legacy Questions and Discussion of texts Group work and discussion of topics based on texts	* Friday Paper 5 due tomorrow/Rewrite from Week IV
Week 6		Conclusões & avaliação	Final Exams
Monday	3	FLAS Discussion *Each student will bring an article in Portuguese – from a Brazilian source – (newspaper, magazines, academic journals, etc) on one of the topics covered in the course and present it in class and discuss them in groups with similar topics	* Rewrite from Week 5 due today (Monday)
August/ Tuesday	4	Ferreira’s POR 3502 Class Dave Zirin, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil [Conclusion: “FIFA-Quality Schools”]; followed by a discussion on the book *Talk about the program: Students’ experiences, feedback, suggestions	Papers returned
Wednesday	5	Final IBEU Language Class Written Exam
Thursday	6	Final IBEU Language Class Oral Exam (Graduation/Friday)