Time after time, Brazil has been hailed as the "land of the future". Capturing the world's attention for over five centuries of colonialism and modernization, Brazil has offered rich natural resources for extraction and diverse social and political realities for the imagination of travelers and the work of scientists, academics and artists alike. Drawing from history, anthropology, literature and the arts, this Global Seminar explores how Brazil's becomings have been represented nationally and internationally and the ways in which its peoples have evolved within or escaped and recast the frames of this imagined country.