Teaching Experience
Here is a summary of the courses I have taught:
Courses taught in Portuguese
Elementary Portuguese
Intensive Portuguese
Writing and Speaking Portuguese (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Third-Year Portuguese Grammar and Composition
Mapping the Portuguese-Speaking World: Brazil (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Images of Brazil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
Introduction to Portuguese and Brazilian Literary Studies (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Survey of Brazilian Literature, 1860–2012 (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
"De Volta pra Casa na Cultura Brasileira" (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Mapping the Sertão (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
African Literature of Portuguese Expression (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Narrative Trends in Contemporary Luso-Brazilian Narrative (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Courses taught in English
Introduction to Literary Studies
Introduction to Cultural Studies (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: "Utopia/Dystopia"
First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: "Crossing Borders"
First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: "Conflict and Civilization"
First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: "Nature" (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: "Work"
Survey of Literature in Western Civilization: Antiquity to RenaissanceFirst Year Liberal Arts Seminar: "Work"
Women's Studies: Pan-American Women Writers (to see the syllabus for this course, click here)
Graduate Seminar: Introduction to Critical Literary Theory
Below is detailed information on my teaching experience:
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
Assistant Professor of Portuguese, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Fall 2010–present
Port 321: Third-Year Grammar and Composition
Conducted in Portuguese, this course provides a thorough review of the principle grammatical and cultural aspects of the Portuguese language. At the same time, the course offers an introduction to the study of Luso-Afro-Brazilian literature. Special attention is given to linguistic challenges not only of grammar but also the practical application of language.
Port 339: Introduction to Portuguese and Brazilian Literary Studies
Este curso propõe introduzir o aluno aos estudos literários e à literatura de língua portuguesa de Portugal, do Brasil e dos países africanos lusófonos. Devido à riqueza desta vasta tradição literária, propomos apresentar aqui uma introdução à análise de textos literários em português com sua terminologia e principais abordagens formais. O curso é organizado em torno de quatro gêneros: a narrativa curta (o conto e a crônica), a poesia, a drama e o cinema. O subtítulo do curso, “Detecting Fiction, Discovering Self”, sugere tanto um tema quanto uma abordagem, ou seja, ao longo do semestre praticaremos uma leitura de investigação, “uma apuração”, por assim dizer, que revelará várias dimensões da identidade (psicológica, cultural e nacional) dos personagens, dos escritores e de nós como leitores.
Port 451: Rumos da Literatura Brasileira
Este curso visa examinar a literatura brasileira do século dezenove ao presente enfocando principalmente os autores mais consagrados do país, mas é um curso que faz questão de incluir um leque (“array”) amplo de escritores de campos diferentes, representando vozes rurais, urbanas, femininas, de cor, experimentais, marginais, etc. O curso inclui a célebre “Carta do Achamento do Brasil” escrita por Pero Vaz de Caminha e leituras de todas as décadas de 1860 ao presente, com o peso das leituras sendo do século vinte. A maioria dos textos são poemas, contos e romances, mas haverá alguns outros “textos culturais” inclusive trechos de filmes, pinturas, fotonovelas, músicas e artigos que servem para aprofundar seu entendimento do contexto e temas da prosa e poesia. Além das leituras obrigatórias, o curso tem tarefas semanais para melhorar seu português escrito e falado. É um seminário orientado à participação do aluno, portanto vocês falarão muito mais que eu.
Port 453/653: Narrative Trends in Contemporary Luso-Brazilian Narrative
This course examines a variety of postmodern themes and modes present in contemporary Luso-Brazilian narrative, including postmodernism and metafiction, noir and detective fiction, feminism, existentialism, aesthetics and violence, literatura marginal, neo-realism, neo-regionalism, post-colonialism, and ecocriticism. The course primarily addresses literary production in Brazil but also includes texts from Portugal and Lusophone Africa. Course materials also include Brazilian and non-Brazilian literary theoretical texts. Conducted in Portuguese.
Port 459R/659R: "De Volta pra Casa na Cultura Brasileira"
Conducted in Portuguese, this senior- and graduate-level seminar studies the formation and importance of the family in Brazilian culture. The seminar encompasses many of Brazil's foremost interpreters, including Gilberto Freyre, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Antônio Cândido and Roberto DaMatta, among others. The course includes philosophical, political, historical, and anthropological texts, as well as a variety of short stories and novels. The purpose of this variety of texts is to better consider the trajectory of the family in Brazil throughout the twentieth century and its literary representations and interpretations. The home is a powerful symbol in Brazilian culture, as Roberto DaMatta states: "There is a clear division between two fundamental social spaces that divide Brazilian social life: the world of the home and the world of the street." The home is not merely a sacred space—a physical space—but it expresses a particular mode of behavior and being. This mode is the theme of this course.
Port 461R: African Literature of Portuguese Expression
This course introduces students to the history, literary, and cultural production of the five African nations whose official language is Portuguese: Angola, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, and the two-island republic São Tomé and Príncipe. These countries appear as a series of dots along Africa's coastline that represent the former "overseas provinces" of Portugal's massive maritime empire. Despite their geographic isolation, these nations share literary and artistic traditions defined in part by the legacies of empire, racism, multilingualism, war, and struggle for nationhood. This course dedicates a unit to each of these countries during which we will analyze films, poetry, short stories, novels, and literary criticism and theory. Throughout the course, we will examine how the Portuguese language has been reinvented throughout Africa, and we will discuss how writers from these countries have appropriated imported genres, such as the novel, poetry, and cinema. Additionally, we will examine post-colonial theories that provide a framework for understanding the problems of aesthetic expression, political representation, human rights, environmental concerns, and the construction of cultural and national identities in Africa.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Teaching Fellow, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Spring 2009
Portuguese 44: Images of Brazil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
Conducted in Portuguese, this course examines major Brazilian films in their historical, political, and social context. Class discussion also focuses on documentaries, reviews, and critical articles. The course simultaneously focuses on in-depth textual and grammatical analysis, vocabulary building, the similarities and differences of oral and written Portuguese in an effort to help students achieve a high level of competency.
BROWN UNIVERSITY
Teaching Fellow, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, 2006–2010
POBS 110: Intensive Portuguese
This is a highly intensive course for students with little or no preparation in the language. The course stresses the fundamental language skills of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, and aspects of Portuguese and Brazilian culture are also presented. The course uses a situational/natural approach that emphasizes communication in Portuguese from the very first class.
POBS 400: Writing and Speaking Portuguese
This is an intermediate level course designed to improve the student's ability in contemporary spoken and written Portuguese. Using such cultural items as short stories, plays, films, videos, newspaper and magazine articles, and popular music, students discuss a variety of topics with the aim of developing good communication skills. Attention also given to developing students' writing ability. A systematic review of Portuguese grammar is included.
POBS 610: Mapping Portuguese Speaking Countries: Brazil
This course taught in Portuguese selects literary and cultural texts that serve as vehicles for a deeper understanding of Brazilian society. Literary materials are taken from several genres and periods with special attention to contemporary writings. Other media such as film and music are also included. Considerable emphasis is placed on strengthening speaking and writing skills.
Teaching Assistant, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, 2005–2006
POBS 100/200: Elementary Portuguese
This is a two semester introductory sequence designed for students with little or no preparation in the language. The course stresses the fundamental language skills of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing, and aspects of Portuguese and Brazilian culture are also presented. The course uses a situational/natural approach that emphasizes communication in Portuguese from the very first class.
Brown Summer Studies Instructor, Summer 2006
Portuguese in the Summer
This is an intensive language course for high school students with little or no exposure to Portuguese. Language instruction is given every morning session, and students study Brazilian and Portuguese culture in the afternoons in English.
BRYANT UNIVERSITY
Adjunct Instructor, Department of Literary and Cultural Studies, 2005–2010
LCS 121: Introduction to Literary Studies
This course introduces students to reading and writing about literature. Through intensive reading and writing about the elements of imaginative literature, students develop the skills necessary for literary analysis and effective writing. The goal is to aid students in becoming discerning readers, critical thinkers, and thoughtful writers.
LCS 270: Introduction to Cultural Studies
This introduction to Cultural Studies serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to the Humanities, which explores the ways in which cultural forms of knowledge and expression shape and are shaped by human practices and experiences. The course explores different models for understanding cultural forms through discussion of a wealth of cultural material from a variety of sources and societies.
LCS 151: First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: “Utopias/Dystopias”
The First Year Liberal Arts Seminar is a required course for all freshman and focuses upon liberal arts modes of inquiry and expression. Each year the liberal arts faculty select a major issue for analysis from the various perspectives of history, literature, the social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities. The “Utopias/Dystopias” seminar focuses on the following questions: What problems do utopias attempt to solve? What problems do they create? Is some form of utopia achievable, or are utopian communities doomed to failure? What can fictional utopias teach us about our own society? What utopian/dystopian possibilities does technology, specifically the internet, offer?
LCS 151: First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: “Crossing Borders”
This seminar focuses on people who have crossed social, geographical, cultural, racial, and gender boundaries, among others. The course considers a range of related questions: What kinds of visible and invisible borders define human experience? What compels the crossing of borders? What inhibits it? What happens to identity when borders are crossed? How do border crossings challenge our ideas about who we are?
LCS 151: First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: “Conflict and Civilization”
This seminar considers conflicts on several levels: personal, familial, social, cultural, and national. The course readings raise a number of related questions. What causes conflict? Is it instinctual, an inescapable aspect of what we call “civilization”? Can it be avoided or successfully resolved? How, and why, is conflict represented and reproduced in culture? How do different types of conflicts intersect? How does conflict of all kinds shape our identities?
LCS 151: First Year Liberal Arts Seminar: “Nature”
This seminar considers the concept of Nature broadly in terms of both the natural world as well as human nature. The course seeks to define and question the cultural construction of nature through a range of case studies from local landscapes to globalized relationships, from nationalism to ecological activism. The explores our own complex relationships to nature and the environment within a global context.
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
Teaching Assistant, Department of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature, 2003–2004
CmLit 201: Survey of Literature in Western Civilization: Antiquity to Renaissance
This course provides a survey of literature from Western civilizations from antiquity to the early Italian Renaissance, emphasizing socioeconomic, political, intellectual, and aesthetic developments, with a primary focus on literary texts. (Homer, Plato, Sophocles, Euripedes, Vergil, St. Augustine, Dante, and Chaucer, among others)