North American universities and the rise of Trump through the eyes of professors | Interview with Hal Langfur

Abstract

In an interview given in August 2025 to the editorial team of Revista Maracanan, historian Hal Langfur (University of Buffalo, NY) analyzes the Trump administration's interference in American universities. Langfur connects his research on colonial Brazil, focused on borders, indigenous resistance, and the limits of state power, to the contemporary scenario of democratic erosion. He highlights the authoritarian nature of the budget freeze for institutions like Harvard and Columbia, drawing parallels with intellectual repression in Brazil (Estado Novo and the 1964 Dictatorship) and in the USA (McCarthyism). Furthermore, he demonstrates how anti-intellectual rhetoric and cuts to funding for the humanities (such as the NEH) aim to silence critical thinking and diversity.