Good Neighbor Circuits: Cultural Diplomacy and educational exchange between brazil and the united states during world war II

Abstract

The article analyzes the educational exchange agreement signed in 1938 by the University of Michigan and the Instituto Brasil- Estados Unidos (IBEU), a newly founded bi-national institute in Rio de Janeiro. Th e IBEU's proposed Brazilian Fellowship Program meshed well with the university's interest in drawing Latin American students to the U.S. Midwest as the Roosevelt administration implemented its Good Neighbor Policy. In exploring the pathways and network of actors, interests, and practices that developed over the course of the program, we argue that this case constitutes a fi ne example of the concrete, complex dynamics that shaped the circuits of the Good Neighbor Policy and inter-American cultural diplomacy during World War II. Our primary source was formed of records held in the custody of the University of Michigan. The period of analysis runs from 1938, when the program was draft ed, through 1943, when U.S. cultural diplomacy and foreign policy shifted their focus away from inter-American relations in light of expectations concerning the post-war period. By examining this specific experience in educational cooperation during a decisive phase in the construction of U.S. global hegemony, we hope to contribute to the historiographic discussion about the transnational circulation of knowledge, people, and practices as a process characterized by moments of encounter but also by tensions and asymmetries.