Daniel F. Silva
Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies
- Office
- Carr Hall 208
- Tel
- (802) 443-5854
- dfsilva@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- By appointment
Daniel F. Silva earned his Ph.D. from Brown University in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. His research and teaching interests include Black Studies; coloniality and decolonial thought; cultural studies in Lusophone and global contexts; literature and cultural production; Critical Race and Ethnic Studies; Latin American Studies; critical approaches to intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in global contexts.
He is a member of the Black Studies Program as well as contributing faculty member of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; International and Global Studies; and Comparative Literature. He served as director of the Black Studies Program and Director of the Twilight Project from 2020-23, and interim director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity during the 2019-20 academic year.
Courses Taught
BLST 0101
Upcoming
Introduction to Black Studies
Course Description
Introduction to Black Studies
This course considers the issues, epistemologies, and political investments central to Black Studies as a field. We will explore chronologically, thematically, and with an interdisciplinary lens the social forces and ideas that have shaped the individual and collective experiences of African-descended peoples throughout the African Diaspora. This course is a broad survey of the history of chattel slavery, colonial encounters, community life, and social institutions of black Americans. We will address issues of gender and class; the role of social movements in struggles for liberation; and various genres of black expressive cultures. Students will develop critical tools, frameworks, and vocabulary for further study in the field. Course materials may include Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies, C.L.R. James’s The Black Jacobins, and Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
BLST 0335
Upcoming
The Black Lusophone Atlantic
Course Description
The Black Lusophone Atlantic (in English)
In this course we will examine the histories, power struggles, and cultural formations in Portuguese-speaking spaces of the African Diaspora. The Lusophone, or Portuguese-speaking world, encompasses four continents as a lasting legacy of Portuguese imperialism and the trafficking of enslaved people. Working across and against disciplines, we will critically engage with Black decolonial worldmaking in these spaces and across periods as we re-evaluate and dismantle this so-called Lusophone world and other imperialist geographies. In the process, we will examine connections between Black life in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Portugal, and more over the last six centuries; and also how Black life re-historicizes these spaces and times. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
BLST 0500
Independent Project
Course Description
Independent Project
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
BLST 0700
Senior Work
Course Description
Senior Work
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
FYSE 1571
Race, Body, and Spectacle
Course Description
Race, Body, and Spectacle
Through an array of visual, aural, and literary materials, we will explore the many connections between racial discourses and corporeal imagery and their role in the reproduction of interwoven systems of racism, capitalism, patriarchy, cisgenderism, heterosexism, and ableism. To this end, we will pay particular attention to cultures of spectacle and performance in which the body is staged and codified in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability for particular audiences. Examples will include fitness culture and contests, beauty pageants, sporting events, music videos, minstrelsy, and other cultures of spectacle from around the globe. Furthermore, we will interrogate how the racial spectacle is embedded into visual arts and literature spanning different stages of empire and capitalism. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
IGST 0700
Upcoming
Senior Work
Course Description
Senior Work
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
IGST 0703
Upcoming
LAS Senior Thesis
Course Description
Latin American Studies Senior Thesis
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
IGST 0710
Upcoming
Glbl Gender&Sexuality Snr Thes
Course Description
Global Gender and Sexuality Studies Senior Thesis
(Approval Only)
Terms Taught
IGST 0711
Upcoming
Global Envi Changes Snr Thes
Course Description
Global Environmental Change Senior Thesis
(Approval Only)
Terms Taught
INTD 0430
Theorizing/Decolonial Archives
Course Description
Theorizing Archives and Decolonial Archival Work
In this course especially appropriate for students with Twilight Project and other archival experience, we will conceptualize archival research and what stories can be told through such work. This theorization of archival methodologies will, more importantly, critique the western colonial function of archive-keeping while reimagining the archives as sites of resistance toward the decolonization of historiography, knowledge, and beyond. As archives are not only something we study, but also something we make, we will examine the ethics of archiving and retrieving experiences of people marginalized by ongoing colonial systems. Through hands-on exercises, readings, and periodic meetings with Middlebury College’s archivists, students will learn to identify, organize, and interpret archives—paper-based, photographs, sound recordings, social media, oral histories, and digital archives—moving between theory and practice. Instructor approval required. 3hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
INTD 0500
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
Approval Required
Terms Taught
PGSE 0115
Upcoming
Accelerated Begin Portuguese
Course Description
Accelerated Beginning Portuguese
This course is an intensive and fast-paced introduction to Portuguese, covering all of the basic structures and vocabulary as well as important aspects of the cultures of Lusophone countries. Within a cultural context, emphasis will be placed on active communication aimed at the development of comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are expected to continue with PGSE 0215, after successful completion of PGSE 0115 (formerly PGSE 0210). Open to all students. 6 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
PGSE 0335
The Black Lusophone Atlantic
Course Description
The Black Lusophone Atlantic (in English)
In this course we will examine the histories, power struggles, and cultural formations in Portuguese-speaking spaces of the African Diaspora. The Lusophone, or Portuguese-speaking world, encompasses four continents as a lasting legacy of Portuguese imperialism and the trafficking of enslaved people. Working across and against disciplines, we will critically engage with Black decolonial worldmaking in these spaces and across periods as we re-evaluate and dismantle this so-called Lusophone world and other imperialist geographies. In the process, we will examine connections between Black life in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Portugal, and more over the last six centuries; and also how Black life re-historicizes these spaces and times. 3 hrs.sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
PGSE 0340
Race, Sex, and Power/Lusophone
Course Description
Race, Sex, and Power in the Lusophone World
How do race and sex intersect in the Lusophone world? What can they teach us about the power dynamics behind world-shaping events such as the Inquisition, colonialism, slavery, miscegenation, nationhood, and even plastic surgery? We will explore the connections between violence, racial identity, gender, and sexualityin the histories and cultures of Lusophone nations. Content covered will include literature, film, television, music, historical documents, and interdisciplinary scholarship that offer different insights into how racial and sexual discourses and practices shape or contest power structures. (PGSE 0215 or equivalent) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
PGSE 0365
Black Lusophone Literatures
Course Description
Literatures of the Black Lusophone Atlantic
We will think with and learn from Black writers of the Lusophone world across historical periods including colonialism, liberation struggle, post-independence, and post-abolition, as well as across Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Through writers such as Machado de Assis, Paulina Chiziane, Conceição Evaristo, Odete Semedo, and Yara Monteiro, we will also critically interrogate the reproduction of anti-Blackness and coloniality as such writers imagine and enact life against and beyond it. Topics and theoretical concerns will include aesthetics, Black artistic movements, Black feminist thought, postcolonial/decolonial theory, queer of color critique, migration, state violence, neoliberalism, and more. Readings will come mainly in the form of short stories, written/spoken/sung poetry, theoretical essays, and two short novels. (PGSE 0215) Lect/disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
PGSE 0375
Coloniality & Lusophone World
Course Description
Coloniality and the Lusophone World
In this course we will critically analyze the meanings and ideas that shaped and undergirded European colonialism and its legacies in the interconnected realms of culture, race, language, gender, sexuality, and labor. In addition to studying the colonial period, we will pay particular attention to how the discourses of colonialism impact power structures concerning nation, globalization, and cultural consumption. In doing so, we will also address the problematics of the concept of “Lusophone,” starting with the historical legacies and cultural implications of such a transnational entity. Course materials will include critical theory, historical sources, literary texts, visual media, and music from Brazil, Lusophone Africa, Lusophone Asia, and Portugal. (PGSE 215 or equivalent) 3hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
PGSE 0500
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
SPAN 0500
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
The department will consider requests by qualified juniors and senior majors to engage in independent work. (Approval only)
Terms Taught
Publications
Books (single-authored)
Embodying Modernity: Race, Gender, and Fitness Culture in Brazil. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022.
Empire Found: Coloniality and Racial Identities in 21st Century Portuguese Popular Cultures. Liverpool University Press, 2022.
Anti-Empire: Decolonial Interventions in Lusophone Literatures. Liverpool University Press, 2018
Subjectivity and the Reproduction of Imperial Power: Empire’s Individuals. Routledge, 2015.
Edited Volumes
Imperial Crossings: Writings on Race, Identity, and Power in the Lusophone World. Liverpool University Press, Forthcoming.
Migrant Frontiers: Race and Mobility in the Luso-Hispanic World. Liverpool University Press, 2023.
Decolonial Destinies: The Post-Independence Literatures of Lusophone Africa. Anthem Press, 2021)
Emerging Dialogues on Machado de Assis. Palgrave, 2016.
Lima Barreto: New Critical Perspectives. Lexington Books, 2013.
Public Writing and Media
“Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba.” You’re Dead to Me. BBC podcast. August 19, 2022. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0ctwj0p
“The Hidden Anti-Black History of Brazilian Butt Lifts.” Washington Post. August 1, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/08/01/hidden-anti-b…;
“Embodying Modernity: Race, Gender, and Fitness Culture in Brazil.” New Books Network, Latin American Studies. July 1, 2022. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0bczSKl79vglYW4hSlXKjm
Selected Book Chapters and Peer-reviewed Articles
“Black Writer, White Readers?: Machado de Assis’s Treatment of Slavery and Its Reception inWorld Literature.” in Machado de Assis in the Americas, Blackness and the Americas. Vanessa K. Valdés and Earl E. Fitz (eds). State University of New York Press, 2025.
“Decolonial Embodiments: Materiality, Disability, and Black Being in Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s Luanda, Lisboa, Paraíso.” Humanities. 13 (3). 2024.
“Archives of Absence: Reconstituting Lives Asunder in Yara Monteiro’s Essa Dama Bate Bué” in The Routledge Handbook of the New African Diasporic Literature. Lokangaka Losambe and Tanure Ojaide (eds). New York: Routledge, 2024.
“Deficiência, Racialização, e Colonialidade em Luanda, Lisboa, Paraíso.” in Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida: Tecelã de mundos passados e presentes. Sheila Khan e Sandra Sousa (eds). Braga, Portugal: Editora Universidade do Minho, 2023.
“Black Migration and Racial Capital in Portugal After Empire.” in Arab and African Diasporas in the 21st Century Luso-Hispanic World. Cristián Ricci (ed). Routledge, 2023.
“Black Decolonial Epistemologies and Theorizing Racial Capitalism in the Work of Grada Kilomba, Jamaica Kincaid, and Conceição Lima.” Africas in the World: African Literature and Comparativism. Sandra Sousa & Nazir Can (eds). Holden, MA: Quod Manet, 2022.
“On Camera, In Motion: Staging São Tomé e Príncipe in Contemporary Film.” Hispanic and Lusophone Voices of Africa. David Mongor-Lizarrabengoa & Sarita Addy (eds). Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2022.
“Anti-colonial Assemblages: The History and Reappropriations of Queen Njinga Mbande.” The Routledge Companion to Black Women’s Cultural Histories. Janell Hobson (ed). New York: Routledge, 2021.
“Anti-Black Agencies: Maria Archer’s Colonialist Feminism.” Portuguese Cultural Studies. Vol7. 2021.
“Tent of Modernity: Miscegenation as Epistemology and Technology of National Production inJorge Amado’s Tenda dos Milagres and Contemporary Brazilian Visual Media.” Brasil/Brazil, 31 (60). 2019.
“Intersectionality, Decolonial Mapping, and Rethinking Imperial Subjectivation in the Poetry ofOlinda Beja.” Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World. 7(3). Fall 2017.