Race, Embodiment, and Transgression (in English) What does it mean to inhabit a racially ordered world in/as a racialized and gendered body? How are body, space, knowledge, and power racially entangled? Whose space and whose knowledge? These questions will be our launchpad towards understanding the complex relationships between racial power and embodiment, and how racism operates corporally. Drawing on Black feminist thought, queer of color critique, and decolonial thought, we will rethink the connections between body and being within the parameters of white supremacy/patriarchy as well as imagining modes of embodiment that deconstruct and transgress racist, gendered, and ableist orders of power and being. We will engage literary works, visual arts and media (film, painting, sculpture), music (song, video), sports, and performance cultures (theater, dance, fitness culture) from across the world. Taught in English.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Literatures of the Black Lusophone Atlantic We will think with and learn from Black writers of the Lusophone world across historical periods including enslavement, post-abolition, colonialism, and post-independence, 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 while imagining worlds and forms of being beyond it. Topics and theoretical concerns will include aesthetics, Black artistic movements, Black feminist thought, postcolonial/decolonial studies, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Black Studies Methods In this seminar, we will explore the historical formation, philosophical debates, and methodological basis of Black Studies. Students will gain a deeper understanding of both the central issues and the range of methodological strategies that have helped shape the field since its inception in the late 1960s. Particular attention will also be paid to community-engaged/informed work and activist-scholarship, as well as debates on the role, form, and function of such praxis-based methodological and epistemological stances. Recommended for juniors and seniors. Emphasis will be given to preparing students for independent inquiry in the field. (BLST 0101 and BLST 0201) (BLST majors and BLST minors or with instructor approval) 3 hrs.sem.

Daniel Silva

Reviews and ratings for Daniel Silva at Middlebury College.Daniel Silva teaches Race/Emobodiment/Transgression, Advanced Portuguese, Race/Embodiment/Transgression and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Daniel Silva good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Professor Silva was an amazingly kind professor who was willing to work with his students. If you're planning on taking this course, I recommend always doing the readings assigned (they're typically assigned for each class but never an overwhelming amount) as you'll break into small groups to discuss and then lead into a larger class discussion. I will say that some vocabulary throughout the class can be confusing if you've never taken a Black Studies class before, but Professor Silva will not hesitate to clarify for you if you ask. I would absolutely take a course taught by him again.

Daniel Silva is one of the kindest and caring instructors you would have the chance to encounter at Middlebury. The class itself is pretty chill, though you'd get more out of it if you're more accustomed to the more theoretical jargon that is ever so attached to the humanities in academia. 

Professor Silva is so nice and I'm sure he enjoys this a lot. I felt like this course wasn't for me tho, especially considering how energetic some of my other portuguese classes were, this one felt very bland.