Vexations, Volumes, and Volunteers: Institutionalization and the Veneration of Information at a Small International NGO Committee:

To the Instituto Dois Irmãos, the Two Brothers Foundation, and all of the neighbors and friends who make their and my work possible. Acknowledgements How is it that one can bear one's soul over the course of months and several hundred pages and then encounter such difficulty in producing a few pages of acknowledgements? There are so many names, so many good deeds, so many kind words that deserve mention that I cannot hope to do them all justice. For this I apologize, and I hope that none of those whom I fail to name individually will take offense. Philip Doty calmly, patiently, and skillfully served as my committee chair these seven years; I cannot thank him enough for the insightful comments, food for thought, and occasional reality check he has offered me, not to mention a shoulder to cry on, if, fortunately, only figuratively. Although their personalities are quite different, Joe Straubhaar has played a strikingly similar role, ever since I became his advisee in the Department of Radio-Television-Film in 1998. Joe has also served as the Brazilianist on my committee, someone with whom I could share frustrations and questions that might make little sense to my other committee members or that might perpetuate stereotypes t