Juan Diego Díaz, associate professor of music, will give a lecture on Brazilian music in Africa as part of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science Dean’s Faculty Fellowships Public Talks Series. The free online talk is May 21 at 4 p.m. (PT).

In “Brazil in Africa: Music and Diasporic Condition of Brazilian Returnees in Benin,” Professor Díaz discusses how the descendants of Africans who relocated from Brazil to Benin two centuries ago have reinvented an ancient Brazilian folk theatre genre called burrinha to express contemporary allegiances to their Brazilian past.

Register for the presentation here.

The three-year fellowships are part of the College of Letters and Science Faculty Investment Initiative to support early faculty research excellence and development. Each three-year fellowship provides a faculty member with $22,500 and is supported entirely by private funding.