Dr. Silvia A. Oliveira

Education

2005: Ph.D. Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of California, Santa Barbara. Doctoral Scholarship 2000-2004, FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - Programa Praxis XXI).

1998: BA/Licenciatura Modern Languages and Literatures, Concentration in Portuguese and French Language and Literature; Dual Minor Concentrations in Brazilian Literature and African Lusophone Literatures. University of Porto, Portugal.​

Appointments

2018-: Director, Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies, Rhode Island College

2015-: Associate Professor of Portuguese, Rhode Island College

2014: Visiting Faculty in Residence, Middlebury College Summer Portuguese School, Vermont (June 18 - August 9)

2012: Researcher, Arquivos Municipais de Ponta Delgada (Azores); Study Abroad supervisor (July 2 - 20)

2011-2015: Assistant Professor of Portuguese, Rhode Island College.

2004-2011: Visiting Instructor of Spanish and Portuguese, Purdue University, Indiana; Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Purdue University, Indiana.

1999-2004: Graduate Teaching Assistant of Portuguese and Spanish, UC Santa Barbara.

Selected Publications

Selected Publications

Oliveira, Silvia A. “Probing Utopian Dreaming in Portuguese American Autobiography.” A/B: Auto/Biography Studies 37.1, 2022, pp. 39-58.

“Os modernismos português e brasileiro no período heróico: uma leitura convergente”. Hispania 99:1 (2016): 160-71. Print.

"O conto alegórico e Nova Literatura em Portugal." Hispania 93:2 (2010): 177-86. Print.

"The Non-Sense of an Ending: José Cardoso Pires and the Neo-Realist Short Story in Portugal". Romance Quarterly 57 (2010): 231-42. Print.

"Estilo e ficção autoral n'Os Passos em Volta." Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 7: A Repertoire of Contemporary Portuguese Poetry (2008): 73-85. Print.

"Memory Degree Zero: Notes on José Cardoso Pires' De Profundis, Valsa Lenta." Romance Notes 47:3 (2007): 333-339. Print.

“Figuras de estilo: revisionismo na poesia recente de mulheres em Portugal e na Galiza”. Actas do VII Congreso Internacional de Estudos Galegos 2003: Mulleres en Galicia. Galicia e os outros pobos da Península. Eds. Helena González i M. Xesús Lama. Sada-A Coruña: Ediciós do Castro / Asociación Internacional de Estudos Galegos / Filoloxía Galega (Universitat de Barcelona). 267-273. Print.

"A imarcescível razão cínica (a narrativa curta de Mário-Henrique Leiria e Luiz Pacheco)." Estudios Portugueses - Universidade de Salamanca 6 (2006): 209-218. Print.

"The Mirror and the State." Santa Barbara Portuguese Studies 8: Machado de Assis: The Nation and the World (2006): 101-114. Print.

“Enterrando vivos”: especulações em torno de O Estadio do Espello de María do Cebreiro.” Lectora. Revista del Centre Dona I Literatura/U Barcelona 9 (2003): 187-199. Print.

Selected Conference Presentations

“Do not mess with the Holy Ghost”: Ethnic Affect in Our Lady of the Artichokes, by Katherine Vaz.” Lusophone Studies International Conference on Women, Gender and Intersectionality in the Lusophone World, June 29 - July 2, 2022, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal (virtual).

“‘I am not a Dabney’: Francis Millet Rogers’s memoirs and Portuguese heritage in America.” Transatlantic Studies Association, ISCTE-Lisbon, July 5-7, 2021 (virtual).

“Americanism in Julian Silva’s The Gunnysack Castle.” Northeast MLA (NeMLA) Annual Conference, Boston, March 5-8, 2020.

“Portuguese-American cultural commons and politics of heritage in Rhode Island.” International Colloquium on Heritages(s) of Portuguese Influence: Histories, Spaces, Texts, and Objects. University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, April 5, 2019.

“Critical Thinking Strategies In The Second Language Intermediate Level Curriculum.” American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese American (AATSP) 100th Annual Conference, University of Salamanca (Spain), June 25 - 28, 2018.

“Portuguese Civic Organizations in the United States : notes toward a history.” Migration and Millwork International Conference: Portuguese Communities in Industrial New England. Lowell, New Bedford,  North Dartmouth, Fall River, MA, December 3-6, 2017.

“Immigrant Commons.” XVI Biennial IASC Conference (International Association for the Study of the Commons). Utrecht University (Netherlands), July 10-14, 2017.​

“Earnest irony: probing Utopia in the Portuguese-American memoir.” 17th International Meeting of the Utopian Studies Society – Europe, University of Lisbon (Portugal), July 5-9, 2016.

“What’s so funny? The evolution of Portuguese-American ethnic humor.” Northeast Modern Languages Association (NEMLA). Hartford, Connecticut (USA), March 17-20, 2016.

“Intercultural Poetics in the Nation: the case of Portuguese North-American poetry.” Intercultural Poetics International Conference. University of Minho (Portugal), June 18-19, 2015.  

“Eça de Queirós and the paradoxes of the modern cynical reason.” NEMLA Annual Convention. University of Toronto (Canada), April 30-May 3, 2015.

“This Must be Lisbon: Portuguese-American Writers and Cities of the Mind.” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). New York University (USA), March 20-23, 2014.

“Portugueses de Rhode Island.” Neither Here Nor There, Yet Both: International Conference on the Luso-American Experience. University of Lisbon/New University of Lisbon (Portugal), July 11th-13th, 2013.

"Relaying the Human Condition: Neo-Expressionism and Catharsis in Raduan Nassar and Rui Nunes" Modern Language Association (MLA), Los Angeles (USA), January 7, 2011.​

"Sentimental topography: Galicia's Celticism in Luz Pozo Garza's As arpas de Iwerddon." Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Harvard University (USA), October 8-10, 2010.​

“PArque Industrial, Sedução e a educação revolucionária do desejo." American Portuguese Studies Association (APSA), Brown University (USA), October 7-9, 2010.​

"Revolução e narrativa: republicanismo e novelística em Portugal." AHLiST, Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), June 23-25, 2010.

"Aesthetics of Violence: Entertainment or Social Awareness?" International Society for the Social Sciences Annual Conference (ISSS), University of Central Florida (USA), February 25-26, 2010.

Fernando Pessoa: A Pluralidade Revisitada" Colloquium on Portuguese and Brazilian Literature in honor of Dr. José Blanco. University of California Santa Barbara (USA). February 9, 2007.​

"Chus Pato: Arte e Interferência." Conferência Internacional AIEG (Asociación Internacional de Estudos Galegos). S. Salvador da Bahia (Brazil). September 12-15, 2006.​

"The narrative bond in 20th century painting: reflections on the work of Paula Rego." International

Conference on Narrative, Society for the Study of Narrative Literature. Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). April 6-9, 2006.

Invited Presentations

“Building Social Capital Through Portuguese-American Organizations” (Panel Moderator). PALCUS Inaugural Portuguese-American National Conference, Washington D.C., June 23, 2018.

“Portuguese Language Education: Challenges and Solutions” (Presenter). PALCUS Inaugural Portuguese-American National Conference, Washington D.C., June 23, 2018.  

“Value Creation: Portuguese Language as Added Value for Business.” Luso-American Development Foundation Entrepreneurship Workshop, Let’s Talk Business. Providence, Rhode Island State House, June 8, 2018.

“Nostalgia das Vanguardas”. University of MAssachusetts Dartmouth, Department of Portuguese. April 19, 2015.​

Rhode Island College Cap and Gown Convocation Address. April 30, 2014.

“Universidade e(m) Comunidade: Rhode Island College e a Lusofonia.” Encontro Mundial Mulheres da Diáspora: Expressões Femininas da Cidadania. Lisboa, Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros (Portugal), 24 e 25 de Outubro de 2013.  

“Economias de afecto e língua.” Identities and Voices in Portuguese: Construction, Permanence and Change. University of Massachusetts Boston. May 6, 2013.

Selected Book Reviews

Rev. of Monteiro, George, Minotaur, Parrot, and the SS Man: Essays on Jorge de Sena. Tagus Press, 2021. Pp. 210. Hispania 106.1 (2023): 148-50.

Rev. of Barbour, Catherine. Contemporary Galician Women Writers. Oxford: Legenda, 2020. Hispania 105.2 (2022): 303-304.

Rev. of Medeiros, Paulo de. Pessoa’s Geometry of the Abyss. Modernity and the Book of Disquiet. Oxford: Legenda, 2013. Pp. 134. Journal of Lusophone Studies 1.2 (2016): 312-14. Print.

Rev. of Atkin, Rhian. Lisbon Revisited: Urban Masculinities in Twentieth-Century Portuguese Fiction. London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2014. Pp. 196. Portuguese Studies 32.1 (2016): 108-9. Print.

Rev. of Contemporary Galician Cultural Studies: Between the Local and the Global. Hooper, Kirsty, and Manuel Puga Moruxa, eds. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2011. Pp. 344. Hispania 96:4 (2013): 788-90. Print.

Rev. of A Companion to Portuguese Literature. Edited by Stephen Parkinson, Cláudia Pazos Alonso, and T. F. Earle. Woodbridge, UK: Tamesis, 2009. Ellipsis, the Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese 9 (2011): 181-3. Print.

Rev. of Sapega, Ellen W. Consensus and Debate in Salazar’s Portugal: Visual and Literary Negotiations of the National Text, 1933-1948. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2008. Hispania 93:4 (2010): 714-5. Print.

Rev. of Martelo, Rosa Maria. Em Parte Incerta. Estudos de Poesia Portuguesa Moderna e Contemporânea. Ellipsis: the Journal of the American Portuguese Studies Association 4 (2006): 168-172. Print.

Other Projects, Publications and Presentations

“The Portuguese Drug Strategy (2000)” Liberal Studies 150: The Opioid Crisis - Causes, Consequences, Solutions. Rhode Island College, March 20, 2018. (Presentation)

“US historical immigration and global migration.” Liberal Studies 150: Understanding the Post-Election World. Rhode Island College April 7, 2017. (Presentation)

Portuguese Online Self-Assessment Test (2012): http://www.ric.edu/portuguesestudies/Pages/Portuguese-Self-Assessment-Test.aspx

“Poetry in the Portuguese Classroom” (Workshop) presenter at RIFLA Annual Conference (Rhode Island Foreign Language Association). October 5, 2013.

Invited OpEd: “Generation Lusophonia.” AATSP Portuguese Newsletter 28:1 (2015). Print.

Invited OpEd: “Portuguese Language is ‘Homeland’ for Millions.” Standard Times New Bedford: June 6  (2012). Print.

Additional Information

Languages

Native: Portuguese

Near-native fluency: English, Spanish, French

Reading/oral skills: German, Catalan, Italian

Professional Membership

AATSP: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese

APSA: American Portuguese Studies Association

MLA: Modern Language Association

PALCUS: Portuguese American Leadership Council of the United States

RIFLA: Rhode Island Foreign Language Association

IASC: International Association for the Study of the Commons​​