It is with deep sadness that we note the death of Professor John Manuel Monteiro, Director of the Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH) at the Universidade Federal de Campinas (UniCamp). Professor Monteiro, an anthropologist and historian specializing in  colonial history, with a particular focus on indigenous peoples in the Lusophone world, was friend to many in our center and a close colleague in our efforts to build ties with academic institutions in Brazil. He was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in the winter of 2010, offering a mini-course titled "História e Cultura Indígena no Brasil." He was also an integral part of the research network for the study of social inequality and human rights recently established by scholars at U-M, UniRio, UniCamp, USP, and other Brazilian institutions.

Monteiro received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago in 1985. His major publications include the book Negros da Terra (Companhia das Letras, 1994) as well as chapters in the Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas and Cambridge Economic History of Latin America. He was killed in an automobile accident on the 26th of March, 2013. Monteiro, 56 years old, leaves behind his wife, Maria Helena Machado, and two adult children, Alvaro and Thomas. Machado, a historian from the Universidade de Sao Paulo, is also a close friend and an important collaborator with our center.