BRASA 2026

Guidelines for Participation in BRASA XVIII

The 18th Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) will take place July 7-10 at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Salvador. The conference program will include academic panels, invited speakers, plenary sessions, and cultural activities. BRASA XVIII will be an in-person event.

All participants must be active members of the Brazilian Studies Association. You may initiate or renew membership here. You may also create a free account here (click on “Create Account”) and submit a proposal before activating membership. However, to participate in the congress you must become a member and register.

BRASA accepts two types of panel proposals:

1) Complete panels, for which all participants are already included in the initial proposal. Besides the regular presenters, a panel may also include the following roles:

• Chair (required) – Someone who leads and moderates the panel and who is responsible for communicating with the conference organization. The chair may or may not present a paper in the panel.

• Discussant (optional) – Someone who will discuss the presentations by the end of the panel. The discussant should not be one of the presenters in the panel.

2) Individual papers, which in the case of acceptance, will be assigned by the program committee to a panel with similar topic.

We strongly encourage participants to submit complete panel proposals. All proposals, including panel and individual, must choose between 1-3 keywords that describe the focus of the panel. As the congress will be held in Brazil, we encourage participants to present in Portuguese, but also welcome papers in English. 

Each panel will last for 2 hours and should include at least 30 minutes for discussion immediately following the presentations. BRASA suggests panels to have four to five papers. Panels with fewer participants may have other individual papers added to it by the committee. Panels with five or more papers will be divided into multiple panels.

• Each participant may submit only one proposal and present only one paper. However, a participant can also serve as chair or discussant in different panels.

• The Program Committee will give preference to complete panel proposals with participants from different universities and that have an interdisciplinary focus.

• The deadline for proposals is October 15, 2025

Submit a Proposal

Once you have created an account, log in and click on the following link

1. Click on submit or edit a proposal
2. Click on “Submit a New Proposal”
3. Choose “individual paper” or “complete panel”
4. Put in title as it should appear in the Program (limit to fifteen words). Your title should NOT be all capitals or all lower-case.
5. Please provide a brief description or abstract (must not exceed 250 words). You may copy and paste from your word processing program.
6. If there is a co-author search for them in the database by last name. If they are a member they will appear.
7. Click accept and continue
8. Check title, abstract and author, edit if needed, then click accept and continue.
9. Follow instructions to complete submission

For complete panels:

1. Put in session title as it should appear in the Program (limit to fifteen words). Your title should NOT be all capitals or all lower-case.
2. Please provide a brief description or abstract of the session (must not exceed 250 words). You may copy and paste from your word processing program.
3. Add Papers. To add a paper title and author(s) to the session listing above click the “Add a Paper” button. Search for authors by last name.
4. Add other participants (Chairs, Discussants). Use the search box to the right to type in a last name and search the database for the participants you wish to add to your session. If you don’t find the name, ask the participate to either become a member or open a free account.
5. When your session is fully populated click “Accept and Continue.”
6. Check titles, abstracts, and authors, edit if needed, then click accept and continue.
7. Follow instructions to complete submission.

Detailed visual instructions may be found here. In case of questions, please contact the BRASA secretariat at brasa@brasaweb.org

Call for Special Session Proposals

BRASA invites proposals for a limited number of Special Sessions that will create space for focused, creative, and interdisciplinary engagement with emerging themes in Brazilian Studies and/or topics of particular relevance to Bahia. These sessions are intended to move beyond traditional academic panels by encouraging active audience participation, cross-disciplinary dialogue, and collective knowledge-building.

In the submission site, proposers should insert “Special Session” followed by brief description of event. For example: “Special Session: A Conversation with Luiz Caldas, Pioneer of Axé Music,” or “Special Session: Film Series featuring Women Filmmakers,” or “Special Session: Plenary with Afro-Brazilian Leaders in Salvador.” Invited guests will not be required to become members of register but will instead be credentialed separately.

Once you submit your proposal via the submission site, please send an e-mail to brasa@brasaweb.org  with the subject line: “BRASA XVIII Special Session Proposal.” In the text, include the title of your special session and a budget with a brief justification. A limited number of special session proposals may receive support from BRASA, subject to budget availability. 

Possible formats include, but are not limited to:

• Plenary sessions with participatory formats and focus on strategic themes for the field of Brazilian Studies and the public role of academia
• Conversations with informal exchanges among scholars, artists, community leaders, educators, and activists
• Practical or theoretical workshops on methods, artistic languages, research processes, or pedagogical approaches
• Performative sessions that integrate artistic expression and critical debate
• Film screenings and discussions, focusing on cultural, social, historical, or environmental topics
• Interactive labs for testing ideas, materials, or collaborative tools
• Collaborative mappings of experiences, knowledge systems, and territories
• Sessions on public policy, especially in areas such as education, culture, health, security, and social justice

Evaluation criteria:

• Sessions must be participatory, offering interactive formats and clear opportunities for audience engagement. Traditional academic panels will not be considered.
• Sessions must be interdisciplinary, drawing from diverse fields such as anthropology, literature, music, history, visual arts, urban studies, law, communication, education, public health, and others.
• Proposals will be valued for their engagement with local contexts, relevance to contemporary issues, and innovative, critical approaches to Brazilian Studies.

The fact that the 2026 BRASA Congress will take place in Salvador, Bahia — a territory of immense cultural, historical, and political richness — especially encourages proposals that integrate academic and popular knowledge and build bridges between the university and society, with attention to topics such as emancipatory education, collective memory, antiracist struggles, peripheral territories, and socio-environmental justice.