Emilio Willems Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS.0504

Staff Only

Scope and Content

This .42 linear foot collection consists of one full Hollinger box. It includes two large manuscripts written by Emilio Willems in addition to eight of his articles, three of which are written in English, one of which is written in German and four of which are written in Portuguese. The collection contains several pieces of Willems’s reference materials including newspaper clippings from a Brazilian newspaper and Willems’s notes on works published by others in his field. Also, two full articles written by others are included.

This collection was donated to Vanderbilt Special Collections on November 6, 1998.

Dates

1940-1967

Language of Materials

English

Biographical Note

Emilio Willems was born in 1905 in Cologne, Germany. He attended the University of Cologne but in 1931 just before the Nazis came to power, Willems immigrated to Brazil where he attended the University of Sao Paulo. He served as the professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Sao Paulo. In 1949, Willems moved to the United States to teach at Vanderbilt University. During his professional career, Willems was a member of the American Anthropological Association and the author of more than nine books and 150 professional articles. His contributions to the field of anthropology were considerable. He was the first professor of this subject at the University of Sao Paulo. He also contributed greatly to the theoretical and empirical theme of acculturation. Willems retired from teaching in 1974 and died in Nashville after a short illness on November 24, 1997 at the age of 92.