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Nara Roberta Silva

@nararoberta.bsky.social

Brazilian social theorist, transnational scholarship | Core Faculty & Praxis Program Head at Brooklyn Institute for Social Research | Supporting people’s power | she/her

36 Posts146 Follower117 Folgt
Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Getting ready for my course on Paul Gilroy in a few days. While Black Atlantic remains essential, revisiting my notes over the weekend made me even more excited to discuss his later work with students. A few seats still available if you're curious; join me! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

The Black Atlantic and Beyond: an Introduction to Paul Gilroy - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Decades after his earliest writing, the work of Paul Gilroy continues to illuminate some of the most urgent debates of the 21st century concerning race, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and more. From Th...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This April I’m (also) teaching what makes a social movement a social movement -- a 4-week in-person seminar exploring collective action and how scholars and activists have understood social change (from 19th-century rebellions to digital-era mobilizations). thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

What is a Social Movement? (In-Person) - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Social movements are instrumental in driving social, political, and cultural transformations across the globe. They raise awareness and shape public opinion; pursue collective action by way of strikes...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I’m teaching a seminar this April on the Fields' Racecraft - if race isn’t biological, why does it still organize inequality, violence, and common sense? We’ll read and think together about this “social alchemy" and what it means for political struggle today thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Race, Society, and Superstition: Reading Racecraft - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

“Race is a social construction” is something we commonly hear and say. Yet, biological ideas of race remain firmly rooted in our practices and discourse. Take, for example, the legal and customary cat...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Incredibly excited to lead a course on Amílcar Cabral @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social! Cabral is one of the intellectuals who offers some of the sharpest tools for thinking about culture, class formation/alliance, and revolutionary strategy. Wouldn’t miss it! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Amílcar Cabral: Colonialism, Liberation, Sovereignty - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

For the anti-colonial leader, poet, and agronomist Amílcar Cabral, the long and difficult campaigns for liberation on the part of Portugal’s imperial subjects in Africa showed that emancipatory strugg...

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Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Excited to wrap up the year with a seminar on Race, Caste, and Capitalism @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social! We’ll explore race & global capitalism w/ Oliver Cromwell Cox’s work as our guide. Join me to rethink inequality, hierarchy, and democracy for our times. thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Race, Caste, and Capitalism - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

What explains the persistence of racial inequality, throughout time and across the most diverse societies? For much of the 20th century, the predominant assumption in the United States was that race f...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Another course alert -- it’s a busy month... I’m leading a 4-week online seminar on one of the most important books ever, Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America, @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social. Just a few seats remain; check it out and don't miss out thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Reconstruction in America - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Promised “40 acres and a mule,” Black people were for the most part left empty-handed after the abolition of slavery—and, what’s more, made to blame for what generations of U.S. historians saw as the ...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Excited to lead a course on postcolonial theory and the afterlives of empire @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social this October. Four weeks of reading, debate, and reflection -- in person, in Brooklyn. Check out the link to learn more and enroll! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Imperial Entanglements: an Introduction to Postcolonial Theory (In-Person) - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Having several origins—from literary studies to Marxist historiography to anti-colonial thought itself—postcolonial theory examines marginality, difference, migration, slavery, servitude, identity, ra...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 11mo ago

50+ years on, Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa remains essential. I’ll be unpacking it -- alongside a few of his articles and lectures -- in my @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social online course. Starting soon, with only a few seats left -- join me! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Walter Rodney was, in his own words, a guerrilla intellectual. Knowledge should be used not only in service of the working poor, but also to help build a vast international spectrum of movements for e...

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Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

A lot has happened in Brazil over the past few days. My new piece for @publicseminar.bsky.social explores the political constraints of Lula’s third term -- how austerity continues to shape the present and why the conjuncture demands more than compromise. publicseminar.org/2025/07/lula...

Lula 3.0 and the Austerity Trap - Public Seminar

Halfway through his third term, Brazilian president Lula da Silva’s popularity is declining. Nara Roberta Silva asks why.

publicseminar.org

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

I had the pleasure of joining @rafkhach.bsky.social for a convo on 20 years of Brazilian politics -- from the Workers’ Party and the Pink Tide, through the 2013 protests and Bolsonaro’s rise, to Lula’s current term and the Left’s contradictions in power. mitchellcenter.libsyn.com/episode-72-b...

The Andrea Mitchell Center Podcast: Episode 7.2: Brazil's Pink Tide and the Politics of Redistribution

In this episode, host RAFAEL KHACHATURIAN speaks with sociologist and political theorist NARA ROBERTA SILVA about the trajectory of Brazil’s left over the past two decades. Together, they unpack the r...

mitchellcenter.libsyn.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

It’s that time of year, folks: let’s take on the challenge of thinking through Cedric Robinson’s concepts of racial capitalism and the Black Radical Tradition in all their complexity -- in June online or in person in NYC @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social ;) 🔗 thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Racial Capitalism: Race, Class, and the Black Radical Tradition - Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

“Racial capitalism” is a concept that has become central to contemporary radical movements, from Black Lives Matter and the prison abolition movement to movements for climate justice. For Cedric Robin...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

Join me this May at @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social for a deep dive into social death, the afterlives of slavery, and enduring structures of racial domination. We’ll read Patterson, Hartman, and others -- come! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Slavery and Social Death: From the Plantation to the 21st Century

What does it mean to experience social death? And how has this experience impacted the legacies of slavery in the 21st century? Beyond legal categories of ownership and personal status and structures ...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

Join me this April for another seminar @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social! We'll dive deep into Du Bois’s Souls and its lasting impact on the discussions about race, identity, belonging, democracy, and liberation -- graciously hosted by @rosaluxnyc.bsky.social thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

W.E.B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk and Beyond (In-Person)

In this course, we’ll relate The Souls of Black Folk to Du Bois’ previous studies and his struggles against imperialism and colonialism?

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Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm so excited to bring back this course at @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social in April! We’ll dive into how nonprofits intersect with state power, governance, capitalism, and social movements. Only a few spots left -- join me! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex: Between the Market and the State

How exactly should we understand the layer of “non-profit” institutions that proliferate in many capitalist societies, existing somewhere between the formal worlds of business and government? What are...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · last yr.

"Prisoners" still hits hard. 40 years later, some pages feel like they were written just yesterday. Can’t wait to dive into it with fresh eyes and urgent questions. A few seats left -- join me @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

Mike Davis: Prisoners of the American Dream

Written in the aftermath of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, Mike Davis’s Prisoners of the American Dream asks a question that remains as urgent today as it was 40 years ago: Why has the American wor...

thebrooklyninstitute.com

Nara Roberta Silva@nararoberta.bsky.social · 2y ago

I'm back in the classroom tonight with this one! The class is full, but I invite you to check out @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social’s course catalog—there is lots of good stuff starting this week and coming up soon! thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/course...

A Ruthless Criticism of Everything Existing: an Introduction to Marx

In this course, we will explore how Marx developed this “ruthless criticism” over the course of his life as a scholar, journalist, and activist.

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