Brazilian Summer

I've been in Brazil since June, first for a two-week pilot interterm graduate school course - The Developmental Trajectory of Modern Brazil - and then for an internship. With two professors and only three students, the course was tiny and intense. We learned Brazilian history and politics and their effect on the country's culture and development, packing ten weeks of class time into ten days. The structure was a bit of a mess since what was supposed to be the first week was shifted to the second so we learned history backwards, but I could ask any questions I wanted and follow any discourse I found interesting. I could talk through anything with the professors and those they invited to cover special topics.  I got to write my final paper on the effects of the War on Drugs focusing on the prison system, which was a cool extension of a paper I worked on in my Illicit Markets in Latin America class last quarter.  We also visited sights around the city in the afternoons, which is always excellent. The subject matter and the class itself were great and it provided a solid base of knowledge which I have built on for the past two months. 

The internship is with one of the professors at the Institute of Social Medicine at the Universidade do Estado de Rio de Janeiro. He has me finding, reading, summarizing and providing a critical analysis of articles on the privatization of medical education and costing medical education. He's written about the topic before and is putting  together a working group to further study the Brazilian situation. With private, for-profit medical schools popping up all over the country with few regulations and international or political funding, they need to decide what exactly they want to know about private medical schools and what data they need to look for, which is where I come in. I spend a few hours every day reading through literature on the cost of medical education or nursing education. I also get to do interesting things like visit health organizations and hospitals, but mostly it's a lot of critical reading to understand methodologies. Last week I presented all of that information to the working group (in Portuguese!) and we talked through the methodologies of various large-scale and small-scale studies. I'm assuming the next step is to write a formal literature review, but that's next week's task. As it is, it's the first of many steps to complete and publish a study on the state of medical education in Brazil. 

If you know anything about my interests or background, this internship may seem a little odd. Before coming here I knew next to nothing about Brazilian history, let alone current events. I'm not a medical student or in any way interested in medical education, except to the extent that poor education may affect public health. The interest lies less in the topic itself and more in the process. Mario has been an excellent professor to work for because he knows exactly what he's looking for and provides guidance when I need it, but assumes my competency. I'm not learning data analysis so much as literature analysis, but that's ok. I have endless statistics classes that I have to take next year and I can always take some data analysis classes if I feel like I need it. This internship has been good for developing a critical eye towards academic research and methodology and learning to work competently in academia. I wanted to know whether I'd be interested in working as a researcher and this is a good way to find out. It's also an awesome opportunity to learn another language, and I'm having a great time trying to rid myself of Spanish verbs and phrases to make myself understood in Portuguese. I'm definitely proud that I could spend two and a half hours presenting a literature review and critiquing methodology with a working group of professors in Portuguese. I make mistakes all the time, but it's getting better every day.

My professor is concerned that I understand the context of the research, so he set up various "field trips" so I can see the inner workings of a public hospital, a community clinic (though insecurity has made that one difficult to schedule), and a large public health NGO. He, his colleagues and the other Masters' degree students working on various projects take pains to explain Brazilian history, culture and current events, and to speculate on Brazil's future. It's an interesting time to be in Rio and in Brazil as the country tries to navigate through political and economic crisis. The country is in the midst of an impeachment resulting in the installation of an unelected political insider as the new President, various high-profile corruption cases, and persistent violent crime. The state of Rio is bankrupt and is dropping public services and public institutions left and right. No one at the public university (which is where I'm doing research) has been paid in four months and the university isn't opening its doors to students for the upcoming semester. Public universities are free and hold a good reputation, so winning a spot is a big deal. Current students are left in limbo unable to complete their studies, unpaid for research or graduate work, and with no timeline for their degree and entry into the professional workforce. The graduate students, like the professors, come to the university each week to continue their projects and to discuss how best to pressure the government, but face the grave reality of working month after month without pay. Entire wings of the public hospital are shut down, divisions combine, and the whole institution is operating with less than half of its staff, many of whom also are not getting paid. Clinics in poorer areas have closed completely. Violence is persistent against both the poor and the police and people live in uncertainty. This is all under the extreme right-wing evangelical mayor, but certainly not solely his fault. Talking about politics and history here is fascinating and terrifying and confusing and a topic for another day. It has been an education in itself to spend two months listening to Brazilian news, talking with Brazilians from all walks of life, and living day to day in Rio.