This talk examines the crossroads of morality politics and entrenched corruption (broadly conceived) at which the Christian Right has long been situated. We will contemplate Brazil as a critical locus for gestating the so-called New Right—in remarkably varied and spectacular iterations—focusing on the road that led from Cold War autocracy to the might of today's evangelical conservatism, domestically and internationally. Late in Brazil’s most recent dictatorship (1964-1985), a configuration emerged that has persisted unto our era, as a developing transnational right-wing agenda took on (1) proximity to extremist, moralistic populism; (2) glitzy and highly successful spectacularity; and (3) remarkable resilience in the face of scandal. One animating question for our discussion will be, in a sense, how we got here—to a moment in which Christian nationalisms in Brazil and elsewhere seem capable of “speaking” the unspeakable, in at least two ways that are notable for our purposes: by championing positions, language, and aesthetics long considered fringe; and by reshaping notions of accountability and truth and thereby weathering cyclical allegations of corruption, abuse, indecency, and moral and ethical turpitude.
Speaker
Ben Cowan is a historian of twentieth-century Latin America, specializing in issues of right-wing radicalism, morality, sexuality, and gender. He received his AB from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from UCLA. Dr. Cowan’s first book, Securing Sex: Morality and Repression in the Making of Cold War Brazil (University of North Carolina Press, 2016) won three book awards, including the prestigious Brazil Section Book Award from the Latin American Studies Association. In 2021, Dr. Cowan published a second monograph, Moral Majorities Across the Americas: Brazil, the United States, and the Creation of the Religious Right (also from UNC Press), which subsequently won the Roberto Reis Prize (Brazilian Studies Association) and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
Moderated by SOF Fellow Daniela Traldi
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