Daniel Silva

Advanced Portuguese
This course is a continuation of PGSE 0210. It is designed to balance textual and cultural analysis with a thorough review of grammar at an intermediate/high level. Students will hone their critical thinking and linguistic skills through guided readings, oral discussions, and short written assignments on Lusophone cultural topics. (PGSE 0103 or PGSE 0210 or by waiver) 4 hrs. lect./disc.

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.

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 Content covered will include literature, film, television, music, historical documents, and interdisciplinary scholarship that offer different insights into how racial and sexual discourses and practices shape or contest power structures.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.

Colonial Discourse and Its Legacies in 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.

Deconstructing Whiteness in the Luso-Hispanic World
In this course we will critically examine constructions and realities of whiteness in the Luso-Hispanic world(s), traversing Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Through different readings, cultural products, and disciplinary lenses, we will grapple with whiteness as identity, as concentration of power, as national and global project, and as a set of discourses impacting gender, sexuality, disability, and labor. We will consider how whiteness is claimed and represented in interwoven contexts of colonialism, slavery, eugenics, nationhood, and late capitalism; paying particular attention to how it is simultaneously decentered and reproduced in narratives of racial exceptionalism, mestiçagem/mestizaje, and post-racialism. (PGSE 215 and SPAN 300 or above, or by approval) Taught in Spanish and Portuguese. 3hrs. lect.