Sips & Scholars: Nara Roberta Silva on "Revolution and Underdevelopment"

Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: “Revolution and Underdevelopment: Walter Rodney’s African Perspective" will be led by Professor Nara Robert Silva. 

What does the Russian Revolution have to do with Africa’s postcolonial struggles? In this lecture, we will examine Walter Rodney’s interpretation of the Russian Revolution and how he mobilizes it to think through the challenges of underdevelopment in Africa after formal decolonization. We will consider Rodney’s work as part of a broader effort to produce counter-histories — tools for political struggle that challenge dominant narratives — and reflect on what it means to assert an “African perspective” in historical and political analysis

Food and refreshments will be available! Please RSVP in advance. 

Everyone is welcome! Come ready to learn and open to discuss interesting questions together. Advanced reading is not required, but we encourage you to check out the suggested booklist. 

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PARTICPANT

Nara Roberta Silva is Core Faculty and Praxis Program Head at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, where she also earned her B.A. and M.A. Her research and teaching center on the intersections of social and political theory, racial capitalism, social movements, political economy, and participatory democracy, with a sustained commitment to public scholarship and social justice.

Her writing has appeared in venues such as Jacobin, The Baffler, and openDemocracy, as well as in academic journals. Her first book, Contradições da Horizontalidade, offers Portuguese-speaking audiences a uniquely situated perspective on Occupy Wall Street, challenging romanticized narratives about the movement while honoring its radical democratic experimentation. Her current book project compares 20th-century Black movements in Brazil and the U.S., examining how their visions of racial identity, national history, democracy, and social transformation responded to and shaped distinct political contexts.

Nara is an Affiliate Fellow at Georgetown University's Workers’ Rights Institute, has taught at Lehman College – CUNY, and served as a visiting research scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has also mentored Brazilian students navigating U.S. higher education through her work at the Brazilian Foundation. Committed to bridging scholarship and grassroots struggle, she cultivates critical dialogue both in the classroom and in broader public spheres.