The traditional Diamantina Seminar will take place from August 17 to 22 and this year’s theme is “Planning, monitoring and evaluation of public policies.”
The state of the country and the world involves crises even more challenging than those we faced in 1982, when the first seminar was held. Once again, it is necessary to summon courage, lucidity and solidarity, without which we are even more vulnerable in an environment marked by constant manifestations of regressivism and barbarism.
As always, the seminar creates a privileged space for the discussion of some of the great questions of these dark times of ours, drawing from thematic clusters that aim to shed light, at least in part, on what matters today.
This year is marked by important historical anniversaries. From a global perspective, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, as well as, symbolically, of American Independence. Discussing these themes today serves to assess the deep contradictions of the long liberal hegemony. The year also marks the 90th anniversary of John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory, whose influence throughout the 20th century and into the early 21st century remains relevant in the debate over the role of the State in the economy. From a local perspective, in Minas Gerais, we commemorate the 120th anniversary of the beginning of the João Pinheiro administration and the 70th anniversary of the Juscelino Kubitschek administration at the helm of the Presidency of the Republic
The traditional Diamantina Seminar will take place from August 17 to 22 and this year’s theme is “Planning, monitoring and evaluation of public policies.”
The state of the country and the world involves crises even more challenging than those we faced in 1982, when the first seminar was held. Once again, it is necessary to summon courage, lucidity and solidarity, without which we are even more vulnerable in an environment marked by constant manifestations of regressivism and barbarism.
As always, the seminar creates a privileged space for the discussion of some of the great questions of these dark times of ours, drawing from thematic clusters that aim to shed light, at least in part, on what matters today.
This year is marked by important historical anniversaries. From a global perspective, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, as well as, symbolically, of American Independence. Discussing these themes today serves to assess the deep contradictions of the long liberal hegemony. The year also marks the 90th anniversary of John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory, whose influence throughout the 20th century and into the early 21st century remains relevant in the debate over the role of the State in the economy. From a local perspective, in Minas Gerais, we commemorate the 120th anniversary of the beginning of the João Pinheiro administration and the 70th anniversary of the Juscelino Kubitschek administration at the helm of the Presidency of the Republic in Brazil. These are two important milestones for Minas Gerais and Brazil that are worthy of reflection.
On the literary front, 2026 marks the seventieth anniversary of the publication of two books by João Guimarães Rosa — Grande Sertão: Veredas and Corpo de Baile. The remembrance of Guimarães Rosa here is more than incidental in relation to the previous item. After all, both Juscelino and Guimarães Rosa earned their degrees in Medicine from UFMG, were contemporaries at the Faculty, and in Belo Horizonte genuinely belonged to the generation that built one of the most significant strands of Brazilian modernism.
In this way, it is possible to see the legacy of Juscelino — mayor of Belo Horizonte, governor of Minas Gerais, and President of the Republic — as the modern-vanguardist counterpoint that Guimarães Rosa radicalized in his Sertão — which is the world — of what was, of what is, but above all of the world of possibilities, of that which refuses to accept that the last word on the world has already been spoken.
Finally, and no less importantly, the Seminar marks the beginning of the celebrations for Cedeplar’s 60th anniversary. The first initiatives toward the creation of the center took place in 1966, with its effective founding in 1967.
A note of longing and tribute, remembering the absence, 40 years ago, of José Santana de Araújo; of Antônio LuÃs Paixão, 30 years ago; of Maria Regina Nabuco, 20 years ago; of Rodrigo Ferreira Simões, 10 years ago.
Forty-four years on, we continue to believe that we are only just beginning. As Murilo Mendes once said, “to be born is a very long journey.”
This year, YSI continues to support the conference. For more details about the Seminar, access the official website .
