Headed to Environmental Justice Conference in Rio de Janeiro

Travelling to Brazil always excites me. My last visit was in June 2012 for the Rio+20United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD).On the visit this month, I will be giving several talks at the III Seminar on Environmental Justice, Racial Equality and Education, which will happen in two cities of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro (Duque de Caxias and São Gonçalo), from August 19-24, 2013. The Seminar is sponsored by the Master Program in Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Rio Grande (UNIGRANRIO), the Faculty of Education at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and the Faculty of Philosophy, Science and Letters of Duque de Caxias (FEUDUC). It is an initiative of the research group "Race Relations and Social Inequalities" (coordinated by Dr. José Geraldo da Rocha and Dr. Cleonice Puggian) and the Forum of the People Affected by the Petroleum and Petrochemical Industries of the Guanabara Bay (FAPP-BG), whose representative is Dr. Sebastião Raulino. My hosts have arranged a real busy schedule.  Meetings are also set with educators, policy makers and researchers from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), environmentally impacted communities with an all-day “toxics tour” and leaders from the Brazilian National Network on Environmental Justice (RBJA), a nongovernmental organization that I have worked with from its inception.  The Network was founded after an International Colloquium on Environmental Justice, Labor and Citizenshipheld in September 2001 in the city of Niteroi at Fluminense Federal University (UFF). Conference participants included representatives of social movements, trade unions, NGOs, environmental entities, associations of Afro-Brazilian descendants, indigenous people, and academic researchers from Brazil, the United States, Chile and Uruguay.