Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at Michigan State University
About
Dr. Paula received her PhD in Latin American studies from the University of California, San Diego. She specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century Brazilian literature and culture. Her research and teaching interests include Latin American literature and culture;Afro-Brazilian culture; critical geographies; critical gender and feminist theory; and social movements. Leonora has extensive program building experience and has collaborated in bi-lateral higher education agreements as part of the US-Brazil Academic Partnership Abdias do Nascimento Program, aimed at increasing diversity within study abroad, particularly among underserved populations. Leonora has given lectures at Harvard University, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of California, Berkeley.
Current Work:
Dr. Paula’s current research focuses on the role of Afro-Brazilian knowledge production in changing the exclusionary terrain of contemporary Brazilian culture. More specifically, her research examines how contemporary Afro-Brazilian literature and urban art recover a specific repertoire of spatial knowledge linked to ancestral practices that inform how afro-descendant identity and urban memory are re-imagined in Brazil. Her publications include peer reviewed articles about Contemporary Brazilian Literature, Urban Art in Brazil and Argentina, and Social Movements in Latin America.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Latin American literature and culture; Afro-Brazilian culture; critical geographies; black feminist theory
