Addressing Racial Inequity in Brazilian Higher Education: The Expansion of Affirmative Action to Graduate Programs
Tue, Apr 21 · 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Coble Hall, 801 South Wright Street Champaign, Room 306. Map Directions
In Brazil, which has the largest population of African descent outside of Nigeria and a significant indigenous population, public policies to promote racial equity were resisted throughout the twentieth century.
In recent decades, Brazil has become the new innovator of mechanisms of university admission and student success and retention to promote racial equity. These are the result of federal and state laws backed by unanimous support from Brazil’s Supreme Court.
The most recent expansion of federal law (Law No. 12,711/2012), in 2023, extends the use of affirmative action to graduate programs in federal public universities and the social groups included in affirmative action programs. This study examines the expansion of affirmative action for historically excluded Black (pretos) and Brown (pardos) students in Brazilian federal and state universities, hypothesizing that implementation has been gradual yet enduring, contributing to a demographic shift in student composition.
Drawing on public data, an online survey, and semi-structured interviews with federal university staff, the analysis identifies policy adoption rates and key challenges. Findings show that about 81% of federal universities and 67% of state universities had adopted unified affirmative action policies across all graduate programs by early 2025.
Beyond increasing adoption, discourse among university leaders increasingly emphasises sustainability and transparency, reflecting a more mature engagement with implementation. Short Bio: Thaís Duarte Zappelini is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Brasillinois Initiative, spearheaded by the University of Illinois System.
She previously served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Health Kinesiology. She held the Werner Baer Postdoctoral Position at the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, both at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
She has a PhD in Political and Economic Law from Mackenzie Presbyterian University (São Paulo), where she also earned her bachelor’s degree in law (2016). Dr. Duarte Zappelini is a licensed attorney in Brazil and has worked as a consultant and research associate for several leading Brazilian institutions, including the Pedagogical Innovation Hub and the Center for Teaching and Research on Innovation at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-SP, São Paulo).
She also served as an Assistant Professor at the School of Law at Ibirapuera University (São Paulo). Her research examines the intersections of colonial legacy, democratization, and minority rights in Brazil’s legal and political history.
She is the author of Liberalismo jurídico: uma discussão sobre Direito e escravidão no Brasil oitocentista (2025).