From Istanbul to Rio de Janeiro

I can take liberties, I can invent scenarios. And why shouldn’t I—coming from Brazil, with Algerian roots—reimagine this history? It’s an incredible opportunity to see things differently. Karim Aïnouz

Please join us for an evening with Monique Sochaczewski Goldfeld (IDP Brasil) and Louis Fishman (Brooklyn College) in conversation on the political and cultural relations between Brazil and the countries of the former Ottoman Empire.

In 1858, the Empire of Brazil and the Ottoman Empire signed a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation.
The aim of the treaty was allegedly to establish direct comercial relationships with particular focus on the coffee trade and the possibility of Brazil expanding its mercantile interests to the regions of the Black Sea. Based on many years of research, Monique Sochaczewski Goldfeld explores the central role of immigration in forming the connection between two 19th century “peripheral empires”. According to her findings, it was immigration more than other geopolitical factors, that allowed these ties to remain in place and grow between the Republic of Brazil and the Middle Eastern and North African states that succeeded the Ottoman Empire. Middle Eastern immigration to Brazil continues to these days and, with time, many immigrants and their descendants became important part of the Brazilian society.

Monique Sochaczewski Goldfeld is Professor of International Relations at the IDP Brasil where she teaches at the Master Program in Law, Justice, and Development. She received a Ph.D. in History, Politics, and Cultural Heritage from the Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) and has been visiting scholar at the Bilkent University in Ankara (Turkey). She is co-founder and senior researcher at GEPOM (Middle East Research and Study Group). Her interests are mainly connected to Brazil-Middle East relations in historical and contemporary contexts.

Louis Fishman is an associate professor in the history department at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is the author of the book Jews and Palestinians in the late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914: Claiming the Homeland (Edinburgh University Press, January 2020). His academic work focuses on late Ottoman Palestine, the Jews of the Ottoman Empire, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also is a regular contributor to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, where he writes mostly about Turkish and Israeli politics. Currently, he is working on a new book on Turkey during the Erdogan years. He divides his time between New York, Istanbul, and Tel Aviv.

Image: Tarsila do Amaral, The Moon, 1928, detail, MoMA