Brazilianist

Brazilianist (also Brasilianista, in Portuguese language) is a scholar, either a non-Brazilian or a Brazilian living abroad, who specializes in studying, researching, teaching and publishing about Brazil - for example, about Brazilian history, geography, culture, politics and/or language(s). There is great diversity of interests amongst Brazilianists.^[1]

Origins and use of the term[]

The term "Brazilianist" supposedly originated in Brazil in the 1960s or perhaps a little earlier and was coined to designate scholars from the United States who were receiving grants to study Brazil at the time when the U.S. had special political interests in that country. However, that is a view perhaps a little too narrow as to the motivating factors which led these many social scientists to do research on Brazilian issues.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s and well into the 1980s when the US-Brazilian relations cooled off the Brazilian press gave much attention to Brazilianists themselves but not much was discussed about their arguments and findings. At that time the term Brazilianist more frequently had something of a pejorative tone.^{[citation needed]}

In more recent years there has been a greater acknowledgment of the body of works produced by the Brazilianist scholars. Starting in the 1990s the works of Brazilianist began to be actively introduced in the curricula of major Brazilian universities.^{[citation needed]}

Today some of the works produced by Brazilianists are known well beyond the academic circles in Brazil.^{[citation needed]}

Brazilian and Portuguese dictionaries define a “Brazilianist” as a scholar, most usually a non-Brazilian, dedicated to Brazilian studies.^[2]

List of notable Brazilianists[]

The following is a partial list of people who have studied Brazil in a multi-disciplinary fashion and can be considered Brazilianists.^[3]