The Pacific Rim in the Atlantic World: Imagining Brazil's 'Japanese'

The Dalhouse University Department of History organizes the MacKay Lecture in History each year. This year's lecturer is Dr Jeffrey Lesser, Emory University. The lecture will be held on 22 September 2011, at 7:00 p.m., room 1009 in the Rowe Building, 6100 University Avenue. A reception will follow the lecture.

Dr. Jeffrey Lesser is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Latin American History and Chair of the Department of History at Emory University, past Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, and of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Dr. Lesser spent 2006-07 at Tel Aviv University as Fulbright Distinguished Chair of the Humanities. He has been Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of São Paulo and has been visiting professor at the University of Campinas and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

His research focuses on transnationalism, ethnicity and national identity. His major works include:

• A Discontented Diaspora: Japanese-Brazilians and Meanings of Ethnic Militancy,1960-80;
• Negotiating National Identity: Minorities, Immigrants and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil, winner of Best Book Prize from the Brazil Section of the Latin American Studies Associations;
• Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question, winner of Best Book Prize from the New England Council on Latin American Studies;
• Searching for Home Abroad: Japanese Brazilians and Transnationalism, an edited collection.

(reposted from the Atlantic Canada Studies @ SMU blog)