Brazil and New Orleans

I went to a Brazilian studies association meeting and a special pre- conference on communication research in Brazil and the US in New Orleans last week. The communications pre-conference was organized by Vicki Mayer of Tulane (at left in the the picture). Nicely done. I organized the first of these in Austin a few years ago, and you could see how they are getting better.

The next picture shows the people who were at the communications pre-conference, with yours truly in the upper left. Also there are two UT grad students, Jeremiah Spence in the upper right and Amy Schmitz-Weiss in the lower left. I really like seeing our grad students get out to these meetings.

Running around New Orleans with a bunch of Brazilians for most of a week reinforced a sense I have always had that New Orleans in the part of the USA most like Brazil in many ways. The next photo shows several of us heading off through the Tulane campus to walk back to our hotel through the grand old houses of the Garden District. Like the one in the next photo.

Rather like Brazil, New Orleans has great music with very clearly Afro roots, great cuisine with clearly Afro roots, and a nice funky relaxed culture with the same origin. The last photo shows several of us sitting around a very nice outdoor cafe, Cafe Amelie:
left to right, Veneza Ronsini (Santa Maria), Vicki Mayer (Tulane), Suzy dos Santos (Federal University of Rio), Jeremiah Spence (UT), Livio Sansone (Federal University of Bahia), and me.