1The present special issue originated from the VII International Symposium on History and Culture of Brazil: Struggles for Freedom in the 200 Years of Independent Brazil, which took place online every Monday, from June 22 to August 31, 2020. The symposium was part of the annual program of the Rui Barbosa Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture of the Casa de Rui Barbosa Foundation (IRBæc/FCRB), which counted on the partnership of a long list of academic institutions: the Watson Institute of Brown University, the Centrr de Recherches sur le Brésil Colonial et Contemporain/Mondes Américains Laboratory, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), the Brazil Lab at Princeton University, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, and the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies at Columbia University, in addition to support from the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) and the Association of Brasilianists in Europe (ABRE).

2This joint effort mobilized 45 specialists in Brazilian history and culture from three continents and had a history of scientific collaboration with a larger, longer-term dimension linked to the current situation. The academic partnership went back sixteen years, when James N. Green, who at that time was preparing to move from California State University (Long Beach) to Brown University, proposed to Isabel Lustosa, a historian of the Casa de Rui Barbosa, a symposium that took advantage of the usual research trips of U.S. Brazilianists to Brazil during their academic summer break. He agreed to be in charge of identifying and inviting his compatriots and, based on the themes of their research, Isabel invited Brazilian scholars so that both communities would get to know each other's productions better.

3Success can be measured by the fact that this simple formula has been repeated over time on an average of once every two years. With some variations of partnerships and criteria and, above all, with the expansion of its scope to include Europe at the 2015 Symposium with the participation of EHESS represented by Mônica Raisa Schpun, this forum of intercontinental dialogues, which the Germans call Brasilianística, held its seventh version in 2020. With the participation of Antonio Herculano Lopes, who at the Casa de Rui Barbosa had already been following the initiatives closely, first as head of historical research and later as director of the Research Center and creator of IRBæc, the trio that organized this year's event was formed.

4Unfortunately, the shorter-term story has not been one to celebrate. The international growth of an extreme anti-intellectual right, which had already led Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States and spread throughout the world, hit Brazil with the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro. FCRB, a cultural institution of the federal government, could not go unscathed. For a year it maintained its leadership, elected by its own researchers and staff, but in late 2019 a new president was appointed with a profile far from the compatible and usual profile of the people who commanded the Casa during its 90 years of existence, regardless of their political orientation. It did not take long for it to become clear that the new president’s mission was one of ideological control and the weakening, in particular, of the Research Center, to leave it limited to its role as the holder of political, literary, and cultural collections, special as they are.

5Thus, when, in January 2020, the new president dismissed not only the director of research, but all the heads of the disciplinary areas from their responsibilities, without appointing people to replace them, the aforementioned trio quickly mobilized with the idea of promoting a major event, demonstrating the support and national and international prestige enjoyed by Casa de Rui Barbosa and its Research Center in the areas of the humanities. Unlike previous years, a theme was proposed that spoke of current concerns, namely, struggles for freedom, without limiting the range of possibilities too much. In March, the state of the pandemic almost undid preparations, which were already advanced. The support of the Watson Institute at Brown University was crucial to guaranteeing the technological and technical infrastructure for the symposium to migrate to a virtual space. There was even a gain, since it allowed for the increase in the number of speakers and eliminated the problem of displacement: two thirds of the participants were not from Rio de Janeiro with more than half residing outside the country. In the end, there were eleven round tables, almost always involving three presentations and a debater, which were recorded and can be viewed either through the Brazil Initiative / Brown University page , or in the journal Brésil(s). Sciences humaines et sociales.

6If the intention of the 2020 version of the symposium was to support the IRBæc/Casa de Rui Barbosa in an act of resistance against a possible dismantling, the organizers did not abandon the excellence of the programming. Precisely because they evaluated it to be of the highest quality, the organizers decided to put together this special issue, allowing for the texts to be revised and expanded upon. What we offer the readers of Brésil(s) is a selection of nine of the 32 papers presented at the event. As the initial proposal for the symposium had been to involve those who, by their own means, could go to Brazil in June, the themes were defined randomly based on people’s ongoing research, with welcomed surprises, such as the great quality of works on literature. On the other hand, important themes that are a part of the current agenda of the humanities, such as identity struggles, appeared in a good number of the texts. Music is represented in one text and the environmental issue from the particular perspective of animals in another. In view of the symposium's objectives, this special issue affirms and expands on the effort to express support and offer international visibility for the Casa de Rui Barbosa. Thus, we opted for a publication quickly produced only a few months after the series of weekly sessions. In this sense, the procedure for external and anonymous evaluation of each text by at least two reviewers, which is customary in the journal, was not applied, nor was the practice of publishing texts exclusively in French: in exceptional cases, this special issue is published in the original language, Portuguese and English.

7We hope you enjoy this issue!

Complete program of the round tables

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