Brazilian Studies Chair Endowed

Jorge P. Lemann '61 has endowed the $3.5 million founding chair of the new Brazilian Studies program.

He donated $1 million three years ago to further Brazilian studies at Harvard has now added another $2.5 million to his gift.

President Neil L. Rudenstine called the new position--to be named the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professorship--the "cornerstone of Brazilian Studies" Friday.

The gift came on the eve of Rudenstine's trip earlier this month to Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires to meet with alumni and promote Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth said the University hopes to inaugurate Brazilian Studies this spring and have the details worked out --and the new professor chair in place--by the fall.

The program, to be run through the Rockefeller center, will be interdisciplinary and is not intended to be a concentration.

Among its activities, the program will organize courses in cooperation with different departments, facilitate travel exchanges for students and faculty between Harvard and Brazil and print publications. It will also sponsor lectures, film series and conferences.

"We hope that this program will provide opportunities for undergraduates as well as graduates that don't exist now," said Coatsworth, the director of the center and a key figure in establishing the program.

He said he has been talking with Lemann for four or five years about Latin American studies. Lemann's first $1 million sponsored a program to bring visiting professors well-versed in Brazilian culture, literature or history to Harvard.

Coatsworth said he hopes the professorship will draw Brazilian scholars to Harvard and increase the number of courses on Portuguese language and literature, and on Brazil.

"I think over the last few years there's been a significant increased awareness around Brazilian Studies at Harvard," said Stephen J. Reifenberg, executive director of the center. "Having a chair will provide a focal point."

Reifenberg said Brazil is becoming increasingly important in the international arena. It is the largest country in South America and has almost 160 million people.

"Brazil has more actively wanted to have an international role," he said. "[More] business opportunities have emerged...People are beginning to recognize more the dimension and importance of it as a country."

The center has inaugurated two other programs in Latin American studies over the past two years--the Committee on Cuban Studies and Exchange and an interfaculty committee on Latino Studies, which focuses on people from Latin America living in the United States.

Like the Brazilian Studies program, these are not concentrations.

"The center does not hire faculty, does not offer courses, does not offer degrees," Coatsworth said. "We work with faculty to make life easier and more interesting for Harvard students and faculty."

Funding for the program will come out of the center's budget, but Coatsworth said he hopes alums will contribute to the costs.

The new position is one of a series of professorships being established through the center since its founding in 1994.

Rudenstine will be responsible for appointing the new chair--and deciding which department the professor should come from--with advice from the Rockefeller center.

A search committee will scour the country and the world for suitable candidates.

"[The chair] gives us an opportunity to attract someone to the University who is a very distinguished scholar on Latin American studies," Coatsworth said.