The Role of Education in the Fake news Era

Talk at 'The Role of Education in the Fake News Era,' an event convened by myself, Alexandre Trindade, and Victor Fraga at the Faculty of Education, with support from members of the Brazilian Society (CUBS)

Jean Wyllys was a special guest at our event, joining us directly from Barcelona, where he is in self-exile following a hate campaign and life threats in Brazil.

Victor Fraga, my dear friend from London, whom I invited to present his first film 'The Coup d'État Factory', accompanied by conversations on the era of fake news.

Márcia Tiburi, an incredible woman and one of our esteemed guests at the event we organised at the Faculty of Education. She joined us from France, where she is in self-exile following death threats from the extreme right in Brazil.

Dr. Haira Gandolfi, lecturer at the Faculty of Education and a great supporter of our work. We were delighted to invite her to chair our panel with guests from Brazil.

Flyer for our event combining film and conversations about education, human rights, and navigating the era of fake news. - 24 May, 2022

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This is one of those special moments when you connect people and places to create something bigger. My friend Victor Fraga had launched his first film, The Coup d’État Factory, and shared on social media that he was screening it at Oxford University and various venues in London. I asked him why not bring it to Cambridge too, and he, always the cheeky one, said, “Invite me!” So I did—even though, at the time, I was between my Master’s and PhD and technically not officially affiliated with the university.

Due to that, I reached out to Alexandre Trindade, who was responsible for the Paulo Freire conference at the Faculty of Education—and who would later become my best pal in organising events in Cambridge and my partner in crime—and asked for his help.

Together, the three of us set up the event ‘The Role of Education in the Fake News Era’ at the Faculty of Education, likely the most attended event at the faculty that year! We screened Victor's documentary, followed by a Q&A with the director, and then a seminar chaired by Dr. Haira Gandolfi. The seminar featured Márcia Tiburi (Philosopher and Lecturer, University Paris 8) and Jean Wyllys (Journalist and Scholar, University of Barcelona and Harvard)—both portrayed in the documentary as victims of fake news and hate crimes that forced them into self-exile in France and Spain, respectively—as well as Victor Fraga (Journalist and Filmmaker).

We also opened the door for Márcia to sign copies of her latest book, The Psycho-Cultural Underpinnings of Everyday Fascism: Dialogue as Resistance. On this occasion, I was very proud to create and present the inaugural Sabiá (Thrush) Award for Brazilians abroad working for a better world, which was awarded to Márcia.

The event was supported by the Brazilian Society (CUBS), the Cambridge Latin American Research in Education Collective (CLAREC), and was sponsored by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH). The Director of CRASSH was thrilled that this marked the first collaboration between them and the Faculty of Education.

Thanks to all the support we received, we provided real-time English-Portuguese/Portuguese-English translations, making the event more accessible and enriching the transnational conversations.

You can watch it here: