Brazil Field Immersion Program
Brazil Field Immersion: Policy, Agroecology & Community Transformation
Each spring, Sustainability Studies offers a 25-day solidarity immersion that moves from Brazil's policy center to communities building alternatives on the ground. Partnering with the University of Brasília and the Federal University of Sergipe, students work alongside Brazilian peers, eco-communities, and social movements - co-learners weaving critical inquiry with hands-on action across borders.
The immersion unfolds in three phases:
- Engaging policymakers and drafting actionable proposals in Brasília
- Learning dry-land agroforestry and community organizing at a Buddhist ecovillage and quilombola community in the Chapada dos Veadeiros highlands
- Joining homestays on an agroecological land-reform settlement of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in Brazil's semi-arid Northeast, where students experience firsthand how collective governance, seed systems, and local markets sustain food sovereignty.
A spring preparatory course grounds participants in the histories, geographies, and languages of the communities they will join. Through co-created practice in policy design, agroforestry, and organizing shoulder-to-shoulder with Brazilian partners, students put their learning into practice while cultivating solidarity research methods that center reciprocity and justice. Participants become part of a growing binational network linking universities, eco-communities, and social movements across the Americas - relationships that continue well beyond the immersion.
