Alvaro Okura

2023-2024
Guest researcher (Sandwich Stay) at the Center of Conflict Studies in the Marburg University

2021-2025
PhD. Candidate in Sociology at State University of Londrina (UEL/BRAZIL)

2014-2015
Junior Researcher at São Paulo State Truth Commission Rubens Paiva (UNPD/CNV)

2013-2014
Junior Researcher (United National Development Program/ CNV) at the Brazilian National Truth Commission

2009-2015
Master of Arts in Political Science at State University of Campinas (UNICAMP/BRAZIL)

2003-2008
Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences  at the State University of Londrina (UEL/BRAZIL)

In my research, I am interested in examining the late and controversial inclusion of the sexual violence in the role of the gross violations of human rights and testimonies that took place at the Brazilian National Truth Commission. In particular, I focus on the translation of international human rights norms and transitional justice theories into this institutional initiative, as well as the mediations that allowed the transposition of the testimonies of sexual and gender violence to the official State archive.

Politics of Memory
Transitional Justice
Human Rights
Gender Studies
Political Theory

The Never-Ending Transition: Dealing with Dictatorship´s Political Violence in the Brazilian Democracy
 
Álvaro Okura de Almeida
Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL/Brazil)
 
From 1985 on, Brazilian redemocratization process after the military dictatorship is characterized by the institutional choice of a “slow, gradual and secure” transition that still poses a challenge to the possibility of building a political agreement on the need to investigate, uncover, and elucidate the crimes committed by the military dictatorship in various spheres — from corruption in state agencies to the deliberate and systematic practice of torture and the murder of people who opposed the regime. Notably, a National Truth Commission took place only recently, in 2011, in spite of being constrained by
political pressure from the military, parts of the judiciary bureaucracy and conservative political groups, and by the (much controversial) amnesty legislation.

The overall aim of the proposed research is to map the transformations in the modes of (non)recognition by the Brazilian State, in the recent democratic period, of the political violence produced by the military dictatorship. Particularly interesting in this process is to examine the structures that enabled and conditioned the insertion of the voice of the survivor’s in the country’s official history. As they opened formal recognition and space for alternative ‘memory entrepreneurs’, those institutions also created their own frame of reference to acknowledge, listen and archive the survivors’ voices. Such institutional mechanisms of the Brazilian transition provided distinct degrees of participation, publication, and reliance on the testimony of victims of state violence in the construction of juridical and historical truth.

I take the legal figures as different and moving ‘subject positions’ in the Law that transform the modes of engagement – and contestation – for the direct victims, their relatives, and the Brazilian civil society as a whole regarding the authoritarian period. The political circumstances, the theoretical justifications that produced those initiatives, as well as the different modes/frames of/for political and social engagement and contestation of the memory of the authoritarian period are the general focus of this research.

Of particular interest is the examination of the late and controversial inclusion of sexual violence in the rol of the gross violations of human rights and testimonies that took place at the Brazilian National Truth Commission. In this regard, I focus on the translation of international human rights norms and transitional justice theories into this
institutional initiative, as well as the mediations that allowed the transposition of the testimonies of sexual and gender violence as a political violence and as a human rights violation to the official State archive. These institutional innovations — and their repercussions — allow us to investigate the transformations of the memory of political violence in the country and its impacts on democratic life in the present — as, for instance, the rise of both left-wing and steady far-right movements and political parties.

 
Articles in Scientific Journals
KOERNER, Andrei ; VASQUES, PEDRO HENRIQUE ; ALMEIDA, ÁLVARO OKURA DE . DIREITO SOCIAL, NEOLIBERALISMO E TECNOLOGIAS DE INFORMAÇÃO E COMUNICAÇÃO. Lua Nova (Impresso), v. -, p. 195-214, 2019.

Silva, André L. ; ALMEIDA, A. O. . Direito e Desentendimento: Considerações sobre a Crítica de Rancière às teorias do consenso democrático. CONEXÃO POLÍTICA - REVISTAS ELETRÔNICAS DA UFPI, v. 3, p. 49-67, 2014.
 
 
Book Chapter Published
ALMEIDA, A. O. ; OLIVEIRA, Ariana Bazzano . . In: Antonio Scarance Fernandes; Marcos Zilli. (Org.). Terrorismo e Justiça Penal: reflexões sobre eficiência e garantismo. 1 ed. Belo Horizonte: Forum, 2014, v. 1, p. 3-432.
 
 
Articles in Newspapers/Magazines
ALMEIDA, A. O. ; Sanchez, Rafael A.L. . MEMÓRIAS DE UM CARNAVAL: RECONHECIMENTO FACIAL E VIGILÂNCIA CONTEMPORÂNEA. Boletim Lua Nova, https://boletimluanova.org/201, 01 maio 2019.

ALMEIDA, A. O. ; Gonzales, Alexandre Arns ; Sanchez, Rafael A.L. ; Moreira, Tathiane . BOLSONARO E AS REDES SOCIAIS: NAS ELEIÇÕES E DEPOIS. Boletim Lua Nova, boletimluanova.org, p. 1 - 17, 27 fev. 2019.

ALMEIDA, A. O. . American First: a superfície da palavra de ordem. Carta Maior, www.cartamaior.com.br, 03 abr. 2017.

ALMEIDA, A. O. ; KOERNER, Andrei . Os direitos humanos depois da guerra ao terror: uma nova normalidade?. JOTA, https://jota.info, 24 jul. 2015.

 
Complete works published in proceedings of conferences
KRITSCH, R. ; ALMEIDA, ÁLVARO OKURA DE ; SANCHES, R. A. L. . Plataformas Digitais, Algoritmos e Democracia. In: 44º Encontro Anual da ANPOCS, 2020, Virtual (sediado formalmente n. Anais do 44º Encontro Anual da ANPOCS. São Paulo: ANPOCS - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ciências Sociais, 2020. v. único. p. 1-16., 2020, Formato Online. 44º Encontro Anual da ANPOCS, 2020. v. 1. p. 1-16.

ALMEIDA, ÁLVARO OKURA DE ; Oliveira, Ariana B. ; Silva, André L. . Os testemunhos na produção de políticas da memória: o caso da CNV, 2020, Evento Online. Anais do 12º Encontro da Associação Brasileira de Ciência Política, 2020. v. 1.

Silva, André L. ; ALMEIDA, ÁLVARO OKURA DE . Direito e Desentendimento: considerações sobre a crítica de Rancière às teorias do consenso democrático, 2014, Caxambu. 38º Encontro Anual da ANPOCS, 2014.

BAZANNO, Ariana ; ALMEIDA, A. O. . De Bush a Obama: uma análise das políticas de contraterrorismo e direitos humanos na América Latina., 2011, Recife. Anais do XXVIII Congresso Internacional da Associação Latino-americana de Sociologia, 2011.
5.
BARATTO, M. ; WHIBY, Raissa ; ALMEIDA, A. O. . Mudanças no discurso dos direitos humanos após o 11 de setembro, 2010, SÃO PAULO. I SIMPOSIO INCT/INEU - BALANÇO E PERSPECTIVAS DOS ESTUDOS SOBRE OS ESTADOS UNIDOS, 2010.
 
 
Summary published in proceedings of conferences
ALMEIDA, A. O. . Terrorismo, tecnologias de segurança e crítica da violência, 2017, Belo Horizonte. Perspectivas sobre o poder em um mundo em redefinição. Belo Horizonte : ABRI, 2017. v. 1. p. 3-222.