8th meeting (November 2020)

Introduction

BRaS academic committee met online on Friday, November 27th, 2020 at 2 pm (Berlin time) to discuss general matters of the organization. The meeting was conducted by Anna Bennech and Giovanna Imbernon was in charge of the minutes. Professor Doctor Thomas Kestler, Matheus Zago, Cláudia Pires, Anna Bennech, Eric Nogueira, Thais Cavalcanti, Jayane Maia, and two new members Luíza Cerioli and Luísa Turbino Torres also attended the meeting.

The meeting started with a general discussion on the tasks assigned in the previous meeting (on November 6th) and proceeded to discuss the following agenda:

• New Members
• Organizational Chart
• Open Calls
• Updates
• Research Groups
• Funding
• General

New Members

Anna Bennech started the meeting by presenting the three new members of BRaS: Luiza Cerioli (Philipps University of Marburg, Germany), Luísa Turbino Torres (University of Delaware, United States), and Flávio Martins (USP, Brazil). The first two members presented themselves, and Flávio Martins did not attend the meeting. After the initial presentation, Anna Bennech informed that Professor Doctor Vinicio Carrilho Martinez (UNESP, Brazil) will join BRaS and also proposed a Research Group. As Cláudia Pires informed, he will be working together with BRaS and his students in Brazil. Professor Thomas Kestler pointed out the importance of a more formal agreement between the BRaS and the professor in Brazil so both research groups can have equal opportunities and responsibilities.

Note:  that both the process and all the documents related to the admission of new members can be followed up on the regular e-mails from BRaS board members.

Organizational Chart

Aiming at showing all members the progress regarding BRaS organizational Chart, Anna Bennech shared the doc in which the members were invited to edit and apply for positions. She presented the group with some updates, the members voted all in favor of and the following positions were assigned:

• Secretary-General: Anna Bennech
• Deputy Secretary-General: Giovanna Imbernon
• Head of Communications and PR: Claudia Pires
• Deputy Head of Communications and PR: Luísa Turbino Torres
• Deputy Institutional Relations Manager: Thaís Cavalcanti
• Deputy Research Funding Manager: Luíza Cerioli
• IT Manager: Matheus Zago

Anna Bennech also reiterated that Eric Nogueira and Guilherme Souza need to apply for a position since they have not applied for any of them yet.

Open Calls

Regarding the open calls for the social media intern and manager, Anna Bennech informed that it is all set, but BRaS also needs someone to hold the IT support. Jayane Maia said she can help with that and write the proposal.

Updates

Regarding the work that has been done in other areas, Matheus Zago provided them with some updates on BRaS-J so the new members could have an overview. After, Giovanna Imbernon, Anna Bennech, and Cláudia Pires summarized the activities of the Blog: a. schedule for the interviews on time; b. opportunities for a joint project with the University of Vienna. Also, Jayane Maia asked the group about a newsletter project and a new layout. Matheus answered that the new template will be displayed after the BLN partnership starts and Giovanna Imbernon said that the newsletter project is on hold.

Research Groups

During this meeting, the group also discussed the general rules and characteristics of the Research Groups (RG). Anna Bennech supported that the head of each RG should participate in the administrative structure, i.e., they would be responsible for choosing the people who will participate in, schedule, program, etc. Professor Thomas Kestler outlined that the RG needs a concrete aim/project so the work is focused on one or more goals.

Luísa Turbino Torres proposed an RG on Gender and Sexuality.

The members also discussed the conditions in which the RG will be organized, and it was decided that: a. Anna Bennech will write a document containing a proposal model; b. the RG will have a list of available outcomes suggested and that can be provided by BRaS (publication on BRaS-Blog, Bras-J), but not limited to;

Some important comments were made regarding this organization:

Luíza Cerioli pointed out the danger of having in those RG restricted to people from BRaS committee/groups and also publishing in its own journal (endogenous publication). To avoid it, she suggested that those possible outcomes have to be offered so other scholars/ authors are interested in publishing and working with BRaS.

Cláudia Pires and Matheus Zago commented on the importance of having not only political scientists participating, i.e., but the RG also cannot be restricted to subjects of Political Sciences.

LuísaTurbino Torres outlined that the RGs do not have necessarily to produce an outcome but would work as a space for discussing literature and debate. In this regard, it would not be possible to produce something, so in similar cases, planning or program of the discussions for the semester, for example, would be the outcome.

Professor Thomas Kestler reminded the group about the dangers of having something really open and without any structure. He agreed with what was previously mentioned and recommended having the RG organized, a short (one-page) plan of activities would be ideal so BRaS knows the members are working on something.

Research Funding

Professor Doctor Thomas Kestler explained that he is writing a funding proposal for DFG, however, it takes time to delineate it. He also asked all members if they have any suggestions/ideas to write this part of the text. He outlined that BraS needs funding not only, but mainly to afford hiring people and having specialized services in the areas they are needed. On a subject related to this one, he also reminded all that he would talk to Professor Lauth about their organization status (BRaS and Universität Würzburg).

Luíza Cerioli and Jayane Maia added that they are available to help the professor to write the proposal.

Luísa Turbino Torres said she is glad to help BRaS to find funding opportunities in the U.S. as well.

General

Professor Vinicio invited all members to participate in a course he is coordinating, also, he said he is very happy to be part of BRaS and is looking forward to contributing.

Professor Pedro Monteiro also invited all to participate in an online event.

Jayane Maia asked if the information on those events can be shared by e-mail.

Anna Bennech reminded that the monthly meeting needs to be focused on important matters and the minor ones, should be decided by e-mail.

Matheus Zago reminded all that at the next meeting of BRaS-J all members participating should read the copyright-terms and conditions so the group can discuss them.

For last, regarding the last monthly meeting of 2020, the group discussed and voted for December 18, 2020, at 2 p.m. (Berlin Time).