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Brazil

Brazil FlagBrazil Map

Population: 198,739,269 (July 2009 est.)

Government: Federal republic; Chief of State: President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva (since Jan. 1, 2003)

Economic Overview

department of anthropology

Kathleen DeWalt

Professor, Department of Anthropology
Office: 412-648-7391
kmdewalt@pitt.edu

For assistance in reaching this faculty member, contact
Amanda Leff
Office: 412-624-4238
Cell: 412-337-3350
aleff@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Medical and nutritional anthropology

Background
Kathleen DeWalt is a cultural anthropologist whose main research interests are in medical and nutritional anthropology—drawing on perspectives from both biocultural anthropology and political economy. She has carried out research in Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, and Mexico.

In particular, she has interests in the health and nutrition impacts of economic and agricultural development policies in Latin America, child survival and adult health in developing countries, nutrition and health of older adults and youth in rural settings in the United States, and health decision-making in pluralistic settings.

DeWalt's current research examines the impact of agricultural policy on the growth of children in Ecuador and the nutritional strategies of older adults in rural Kentucky. DeWalt received her PhD from the University of Connecticut in 1979.

Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

James Craft

Professor, director of the doctoral program
Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business
office: 412-648-1680
home: 412-241-1613
craft@katz.pitt.eduFaculty Bio

For assistance in reaching the faculty member, contact:
Amanda Leff
Office: 412-624-4238
Cell: 412-337-3350
aleff@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Behavioral science, human resources management/industrial relations, and strategic planning and policy

Background

James Craft has researched and published extensively in the field of human resources and labor relations. Current research activities include an inquiry into the elements of organizational human resources strategy, the use of human resources systems to enhance organizational competitiveness, and an examination of the evolving characteristics of unions and collective bargaining. He has served as a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow in Washington, D.C., and has been employed as a labor force analyst with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Craft has been a visiting professor at Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria (Valparaiso, Chile) and the International Management Center (Budapest, Hungary). In addition, he has lectured on human resources topics in universities and in business programs in Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and Poland.

Department of Economics

Carmelo Mesa-Lago

Professor Emeritus,
Department of Economics,
School of Arts and Sciences
office: 412-648-2828
cmesa+@pitt.edu

For assistance in reaching this faculty member, contact:
Amanda Leff
Office: 412-624-4238
Cell: 412-337-3350
aleff@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Social security, health care, pension, economics of Latin America

Background

The former director of Pitt’s Center for Latin American Studies, Carmelo Mesa-Lago is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics and Latin American Studies. He was a visiting professor or researcher in Argentina, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay, United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as a lecturer in 36 countries.

Mesa-Lago is the author of 73 books and about 240 articles/chapters published in eight languages in 33 countries, most of them on social security, including pensions and healthcare. He has worked in all countries of Latin America and several in the Caribbean, as well as in Germany, Egypt, Ghana, and Thailand. He also has been a regional advisor for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and a consultant with the International Labour Organization and the International Social Security Association.

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

George Reid Andrews

University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of History, Department of History;
Research Professor of History,
University Center of International Studies
Office: 412-648-7295
reid1@pitt.edu
Web site

 

For assistance

in reaching this Pitt faculty member, contact Patricia Lomando White
Office: 412-624-9101
Cell: 412-215-9932 laer@pitt.edu.

Areas of Expertise

Latin America, comparative history, race in colonial and modern Latin America, Afro-Latin America, Brazil, Argentina

Background

At Pitt since 1981, Reid Andrews has done extensive research on Brazil, Argentina, and Latin America in general. He is the author of Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 (Oxford University Press, 2004), named Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2005 and for which he received the 2005 Arthur P. Whitaker Prize. The book has been translated into Portuguese and Spanish.

Andrews' other books include The Social Construction of Democracy, 1870-1990, coedited with Herrick Chapman, (Macmillan and New York University Press, 1995); Blacks and Whites in São Paulo, Brazil, 1888-1988 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), for which he earned the 1993 Arthur P. Whitaker Prize, also translated into Portuguese; and The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1980). He is at work on Blackness in the White Nation: Afro-Uruguay, 1830-2010.

department of political science

Barry Ames

Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Comparative Politics and chair,
Department of Political Science,
School of Arts and Sciences
office: 412-648-7276
cell: 412-613-1075
barrya@pitt.edu
Web site

 

For assistance

in reaching this Pitt faculty member, contact Patricia Lomando White
Office: 412-624-9101
Cell: 412-215-9932 laer@pitt.edu.

Areas of Expertise

Comparative politics, Latin America, legislative behavior, electoral systems, political economy

Background
An expert on Latin American politics, Ames is currently principal investigator on a six-wave panel study of public opinion in two Brazilian cities from 2002 to 2006. Between 1990 and 2000, he analyzed Brazil’s electoral system and legislative behavior. An earlier project focused on the strategies of Latin American politicians struggling to hold on to power.

Ames has received three National Science Foundation awards, the latest in 2002 for “The Dynamics of Political Attitude Formation in a Milieu of Multiple Weak Parties: A Context-Sensitive Analysis of Voting Behavior in Two Brazilian Cities.” Ames’ books include The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil (University of Michigan Press, 2001), Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (The University of California Press, 1987), and Rhetoric and Reality in a Militarized Regime: Brazil After 1964, Sage Professional Papers in Comparative Politics, Vol. 4, 01-042 (Beverly Hills and London: Sage Publications, 1973). He speaks Portuguese and Spanish.

Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

Louis A. Picard

Professor of International Development,
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Office: 412-648-7659
Cell: 412-260-9709
picard@pitt.edu
Faculty Bio
Web site

For assistance in reaching this faculty member, contact
Amanda Leff
Office: 412-624-4238
Cell: 412-337-3350
aleff@pitt.edu

Areas of Expertise

Development management and governance; political development; local-level politics; manpower planning; politics of rural development; Eastern, Southern, and West Africa; Horn of Africa; Latin America and Caribbean

Background

Louis A. Picard has done consulting work for the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, the governments of Botswana and South Africa, and the Ford Foundation. His publications include seven books and more than 40 articles on international development, including “Public Administration in South Africa: Provincial Capacity, Institutional Development, and the Civil Service” in Public Administration in South Africa (Westview Press, 1999) and “Affirmative Action in South Africa: The Transition to a Non-racial Public Service” in Public Administration: Concepts, Theory and Practice (Southern Publishers, 1995).