Scholars’ Circle – Lula’s election win in Brazil ; Abelism invoked upon Pennsylvania Senate candidate – November 6, 2022

Brazil’s election of Lula da Silva over Bolsonaro has provided hope that the country will retain its democratic institutions. We discuss the elections and the likely policy changes. [ dur: 38mins. ] Erica Resende is an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the Brazilian National War College in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates and Crisis and Change in Post Cold-War Global Politics. Fernanda Magnotta is Professor of International Relations at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) and Visiting Faculty Fulbright Scholar at the University of Southern California. She is a columnist on international politics at Universo Online (UOL). She is the author of Ideas Matter: American Exceptionalism at the Dawn of the Superpower, and numerous op-ed pieces for UOL, including the recent “If He Loses the Election, Bolsonaro is Expected to Follow Trumpist Protocol.” The campaign of John Fetterman for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania has produced some truly disturbing ableist discourses about the qualifications of persons with disabilities for public service. How is this ableist narrative framing the rights and abilities of persons with disabilities in the United States? What does this mean for persons with disabilities and their capabilities as elected officials? We explore this debate. [ dur: 20mins. ] Damien Patrick Williams is an assistant professor in Philosophy and Data Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Why AI Research Needs Disabled and Marginalized Perspectives, Fitting the description: historical and sociotechnical elements of facial recognition and anti-black surveillance, and Constructing Situated and Social Knowledge: Ethical, Sociological, and Phenomenological Factors in Technological Design. Damien is member of the Project Advisory Committee for the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Disability Rights and Algorithmic Fairness, Bias, and Discrimination, and the Disability Inclusion Fund’s Tech & Disability Stream Advisory Committee. This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.