In early June, USP’s rector João Grandino Rodas appointed two new members to the institute’s governing council: jurist Ellen Gracie Northfleet, former president of the Federal Supreme Court, and sociologist Sedi Hirano, former dean of Culture and University Extension. Ellen Gracie was chosen for the position of community representative outside USP, succeeding José Roberto Nalini. Sedi Hirano was appointed to an open position after the end of the mandate of professor Sílvio R. A. Salinas, of the Institute of Physics.
Ellen Northfleet graduated in Law and specialized in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). She received a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation at the School of Public Affairs of the American University in Washington, and has woked as a jurist in residence at the Law Library of Congress in the USA. Northfleet taught at UFRGS and University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos. She was the Brazilian national prosecutrix from 1973 to 1989. In 1989, she was nominated to the Federal Court of the 4th Region, of which she was president from 1997 to 1999. In November 2000, Northfleet was appointed minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) by president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, becoming the first woman to join the Supreme Court of Brazil. In 2004 she was elected vice-president of the STF, being elected president of the court in 2006 for a two-year terms. She retired as minister of the STF in 2011.
Sedi Hirano graduated in Social Sciences from USP, where he became Master and PhD in Sociology. He has been dean of Culture and University Extension at USP, director of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH), of which he is an emeritus professor, and has joined the board of FAPESP. Hirano has been visiting professor at the department for Brazilian Studies at the University of Tenri, in Japan, and gave lectures at several universities in Latin America, Europe, Japan and the United States. He is currently executive coordinator of the Exchange Scholarship Program for Undergraduates at USP, member of the University Council of Unicamp and board member of USP’s publishing house. His research is mainly focused on Sociology of Development, with emphasis on issues like Latin America, East Asia, inequality, poverty, work and violence.
Photos: Felipe Sampaio/SCO/STF and Fapesp
