History of Evolution and Heredity in Brazil

This group examines the history of the evolutionary synthesis of genetics and natural selection, and its impact upon agriculture, and theories of race and eugenics.
 
Meetings are held in Portuguese.

Please set your timezone at https://www.chstm.org/user

Respectful Behavior Policy

Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.

Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.

 

Upcoming Meetings

  • Friday, January 17, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST

    Speaker:
    Prof. Francesco Cassata
    Assistant Professor in Contemporary History, University of Genoa
    Presentation:
    "Reconstructing 'Dante's Race': Fabio Frassetto and the International Committee for Anthropological Standardization (SAS)."
    The lecture will be delivered in English.
    Suggested Readings:
    Coming soon.
    To learn more about Prof. Cassata, please click here.


  • Friday, February 21, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EST

    TBA


  • Friday, March 21, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT

    TBA


  • Friday, April 18, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT

    TBA


  • Friday, May 16, 2025 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm EDT

    Speaker
    Prof. Gracyelle Costa Ferreira
    Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
    Learn more: Prof. Gracyelle Costa Ferreira - GPSankofa
    Presentation:
    Details coming soon
    Suggested Readings:

    • Ferreira, G. C. (2024). The captain’s social policy: Bolsonarism, neo-Malthusianism, eugenics, and militarization in Brazil. Serviço Social & Sociedade, 147(2).

    Read the article here.
    For more information about Prof. Ferreira, click here.
     

     

     



Past Meetings

  • November 15, 2024

    This session is postponed and will be rescheduled.
    Speaker:
    Dra. Ágata Ignaciuk Klemba (Spain)
    Full Professor, Universidad de Granada
    Department of Anatomical Pathology and History of Science
    Presentation:
    "Gendering Contraceptive Technologies in Communist Poland."
    The lecture will be delivered in English.
    Suggested Readings:
    Coming soon.
    To learn more about Dr. Ignaciuk Klemba, please click here.
     


  • October 18, 2024

    Speaker:
     
    M.s. Daniel Florence Giesbrecht (Brazil)
    Researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Coimbra
    Guest lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FLUC/UC)
    Ph.D. candidate in the Contemporary History Program, University of Coimbra
     
    Presentation:
     
    “Divus vs. Galton: Eugenia Negativa e Catolicismo no Brasil nas Décadas de 1920 e 1930”
    [Divus vs. Galton: Negative Eugenics and Catholicism in Brazil during the 1920s and 1930s]
     
    The lecture will be in Portuguese.
     
    Suggested Reading [Portuguese]:
     
    1 - GIESBRECHT, Daniel Florence. Eugenics and Catholicism in Brazil: a study based on Catholic intellectual production in Rio de Janeiro in the decades of 1920 and 1930. In Revista de História Regional, v. 29, 2024. Link
     
    2 - WEGNER, Robert; SOUZA, Vanderlei Sebastião de. Negative eugenics, psychiatry, and Catholicism: Debates around eugenic sterilization in Brazil. História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, v. 20, pp. 263-288, 2013. Link to PDF.
     
    3 - VELLOSO, Mônica Pimenta. A Ordem: A journal of political doctrine and Catholic culture. Revista de Ciência Política, v. 21, n. 3, pp. 117–160, 1978. Link to article.
     
    Explore Previous Works:
     
    To learn more about Giesbrecht, please click here: Daniel Florence Giesbrecht Profile.

     


  • September 20, 2024

    Speaker:

    Dr. Guilherme Prado Roitberg (Minas Gerais, Brazil)
    Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Minas Gerais (IFMG), Brazil
    Postdoctoral Researcher in the History of Science at the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC/Fiocruz), Brazil
     
     
    Presentation:

    "É preciso arredondar os olhos do japonês": eugenia e miscigenação na obra "Aspectos íntimos do Japão" (1952) de Salvador de Toledo Piza Júnior.
     
    ["It's Necessary to Round the Japanese Eyes": Eugenics and Miscegenation in the Work "Intimate Aspects of Japan" (1952) by Salvador de Toledo Piza Júnior.].
     
    The lecture will be in Portuguese.

    Suggested Reading:

     
    [Portuguese] Guilherme Prado Roitberg. (2023). Entre a divulgação científica e a eugenia tardia: rupturas e permanências na trajetória intelectual de Salvador de Toledo Piza Jr., 1898-1988. História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos, 30. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702023000100025
     
     [English] Guilherme Prado Roitberg. (2023). Between scientific dissemination and late-stage eugenics: ruptures and continuations in the intellectual trajectory of Salvador de Toledo Piza Jr., 1898-1988. História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos, 30. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702023000100025en
     
     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Dr. Roitberg, please click here.


  • August 16, 2024

    Speaker:
    Mikhail Konashev (St. Petersburg, Russia)
    Institute of the History of Science and Technology, Russia 

    Presentation:
    "On Brazil and Brazilians in Dobzhansky's Diary."
    ["Sobre o Brasil e os Brasileiros no Diário de Dobzhansky."]
     
    (The lecture will be in English)
     
    Suggested Readings:
     
    Soon.
     
     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Dr. Konashev, please click here.
     

     
     


  • July 26, 2024

    Speaker:
    Dr. Eyal Weinberg (Florida, US)
    Historian of modern Latin America, with a focus on Brazil
    Assistant Professor, Florida Atlantic University
     
    Presentation:
    "Medical Ethics, Health Struggles, and Family Planning in Cold War Brazil"
     
    ["Ética Médica, Lutas pela Saúde e Planejamento Familiar no Brasil durante a Guerra Fria"].
     
    (The lecture will be in English)
     
    Suggested Readings:
     
    1—Eyal Weinberg, “Planning a Brazilian Family: Birth Control, Sterilization, and the Welfare of Society,” Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe Vol. 34. No. 2 (2023): 97-121 
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379276476_Planning_a_Family_Bir...
     
    2- Edméia de Almeida Cardoso Coelho, Maria de Fátima Gomes de Lucena, and Ana Tereza de Medeiros Silva, “O planejamento familiar no Brasil no contexto das políticas públicas de saúde: determinantes históricos,” Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 34:1 (2000), pp. 37–44.
    https://www.scielo.br/j/reeusp/a/GrTf3vFznTHzrbmnDHQHtDP
     
    3- Sarah Escorel, Reviravolta na saúde: origem e articulação do movimento sanitário (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz, 1999).
    https://static.scielo.org/scielobooks/qxhc3/pdf/escorel-9788575413616.pdf
     
    4 - Gilberto Hochman and Diego Armus, eds., Cuidar, controlar, curar ensaios históricos sobre saúde e doença na América Latina e Caribe (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz, 2004)
    https://portal.fiocruz.br/livro/cuidar-controlar-curar-ensaios-historico...
     
     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Dr. Weinberg, please click here.
     
     
    Join us for this engaging discussion!


  • June 21, 2024

    Speaker:
    M.Sc. Lucas Carvalho do Nascimento Nogueira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
    PhD student in the Graduate Program in History of Sciences and Health, Fiocruz — Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC).
    Professor at the Department of Education of the State of Minas Gerais.
     
    Presentation:
    "Aprenda a planejar a sua família, o nascimento dos bons: controle populacional no Brasil, 1961-1993.”
    [“Learning Family Planning, Birthing the Better: Population Control in Brazil, 1961-1993.”].
     
    Suggested Readings:
    1-  Levine, Philippa, Eugenics : a very short introduction / : New York, NY: Oxford University Press, [2017] |Series: Very short introductions. Pages: 97-120.
    https://academic.oup.com/book/825/chapter-abstract/135446303?redirectedF...
     
    2- RAMSDEN, Edmund. Confronting the Stigma of Eugenics: Genetics, Demography and the Problems of Population: Social Studies of Science, December 2009, Vol. 39, No. 6 (December 2009), pp. 853-884.
    Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20506743/  
     
    3 – MERCHANT, Emily K. American Demographers and Global Population Policy in the Postwar World. Modern American History (2021), 4, 239–261 doi:10.1017/mah.2021.22.
    Link:  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-american-history/article/...
     
    4- BHERING, Marcos Jungmann
    Controle de natalidade no Brasil: um estudo sobre o Centro de Pesquisas e Assistência Integral à Mulher e à Criança (1975-1994). Tese (Doutorado em História das Ciências e da Saúde) – Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 2014. 202 f. Cap 04 – páginas, 129-156.
    https://ppghcs.coc.fiocruz.br/images/dissertacoes/teste/tese_marcos_bher...
     
     
     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about M.Sc. Nogueira, please click here.
     
    The presentation will be in Portuguese.

    Join us for this engaging discussion!


  • May 17, 2024

    Dr. Leonardo Dallacqua de Carvalho (Brazil)
    Graduate Program in History at State University of Maranhão - UEMA, Brazil.
    PhD in History of Sciences at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (2019).
     
     
    Presentation:
    “Eugenics e (Hi)story-play-spaces: jogos eletrônicos e eugenia nas narrativas históricas".
    [Eugenics and (Hi)story-play-spaces: Electronic Games and Eugenics in Historical Narratives].

     
    Suggested Readings:
     
    1—Dallacqua, L. (2023). Games e a “ciência de Galton”: referências à eugenia no jogo eletrônico Red Dead Redemption 2. ArtCultura, 25(46), 259–276. 
     

    2—Chapman, A., Foka, A., & Westin, J. (2016). Introduction: what is historical game studies? Rethinking History, 21(3), 358–371. 
     
     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Dr. Carvalho, please click here.
     
     
    Join us for this engaging discussion!


  • April 19, 2024

    Speaker:
    Dr. Mércio Pereira Gomes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
    Anthropologist, Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil.

    Former President of Funai (National Indigenous People Foundation) from 2003 to 2007.

     
    Presentation:
    “Genética: a última fronteira para se entender os povos indígenas e sua mestiçagem no Brasil".
     
    [Genetics: The Final Frontier in Understanding Indigenous Peoples and Their Miscegenation in Brazil].”
     
    Suggested Readings:
     
    1—Gomes, M. P. (2019). O Brasil Inevitável: Ética, Mestiçagem e Borogodó. Topbooks. Read Book.
     
    2—Gomes, M. P. (2012). Índios no Brasil. Contexto. Read Book.
     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Dr. Gomes, please click here.
     
     
    Join us for this engaging discussion!
     

     

     


  • March 15, 2024

    Speaker:
    Dr. Ilana Löwy (Paris, France)
    Emerita Senior Research Fellow at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.
     
    Presentation:
    “Zika e a questão complexa do aborto 'eugênico' por indicação fetal. [Zika and the tangled issue of an 'eugenic' abortion for fetal indication].”
     
    New book by the author: Löwy, I. (2024). Viruses and Reproductive Injustice. Johns Hopkins University Press. Please access more information about the book here.
     

    Suggested Readings:
     
    1—Löwy, I. (2020). Abortion for fetal anomaly: how to speak about a difficult topic. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, 36. Read Article.
     
    2—Paul, D. Β., & Löwy, I. (2018). On Objectivity in Prenatal Genetic Care. OBM Genetics, 2(2), 1–1. Read Article.
     
    3—Löwy, I. (2024). Chapter Two (Fetuses: Women, Doctors, and the Law) from 'Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil'. Johns Hopkins University Press. (Attached on our website).
     

    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Dr. Löwy, please click here.
     
    Join us for this engaging discussion!


  • February 16, 2024

    Speaker: 
    M.Sc. Alexandre Verçosa Greco (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
    Master's graduate (2023) from the Graduate Program in History of Sciences and Health at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz. 
    Professor at the Department of Education of the State of Rio de Janeiro, SEEDUC/RJ.
     
    Presentation:
    “O médico Mário Victor de Assis Pacheco no debate sobre o controle populacional (1968-1985)” [Doctor Mário Victor de Assis Pacheco in the debate on population control (1968-1985)].

     
    Explore Previous Works:
    To learn more about Mr. Greco, please click here to access his Master's thesis.
     
    Join us for this engaging discussion!
     


Group Conveners

  • William.deJong-Lambert's picture

    William deJong-Lambert

    William deJong-Lambert is a Professor of History at Bronx Community College, CUNY who will be spending the spring semester 2025 teaching at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul as a Fulbright scholar while researching a biography of Theodosius Dobzhansky.  

     

  • PaulaHabib's picture

    Paula Habib

    Paula Habib is a Professor of History at the Federal University Fluminense (UFF/Brazil). Habib´s research specializes in history of agriculture, genetics, history of biology and eugenics during the first decades of the 20 th century. She holds a Ph.D. in History of Science and Health by Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

     

  • marcelo.loreto@gmail.com's picture

    Marcelo Lima Loreto

    Visiting Scholar at Columbia University (Institute of Latin American Studies), United
    States. 2022-2023.

     
    Science journalist working for Folha de São Paulo and other media.
     
    Research fellow at the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. 2021-2022. Project, here.
     
    Ph.D. in History of Science by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2019, Brazil. 
    Dissertation thesis, here.
     

     

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