Carolina Alvim Ferreira

I am a scholar of contemporary Brazilian literature whose research examines how silence communicates and produces meaning in narratives of gender and sexuality, particularly in relation to violence, trauma, and power. My work draws on the epistemology of silence, decolonial feminism, discourse analysis, and gender and sexuality studies, with a focus on twenty-first-century prose.

I was born in Rio de Janeiro and raised in Brasília. I began my studies at the University of Brasília, where I earned a BA in Portuguese as a Second Language and an MA in Linguistics, with an emphasis on Language and Society. I completed my PhD in Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My background in linguistics and literary studies shapes my approach to literature as both an aesthetic form and a mode of social discourse.

My doctoral dissertation, Silêncio, gênero e sexualidade: a vivência de protagonistas mulheres na literatura brasileira do século XXI (Silence, Gender, and Sexuality: The Experiences of Female Protagonists in Twenty-First-Century Brazilian Literature), examines works by Adriana Lisboa, Beatriz Leal, Natalia Polesso, and Monique Malcher. Across these texts, I explore the meanings that emerge from what is spoken, withheld, or left unsaid. The project traces how silence intersects with intergenerational trauma, memory, and lesbian visibility, while examining how women respond to and resist structures of oppression. My current research extends this work to Brazilian literature published since 2020, with particular attention to women’s writing and contemporary representations of gender and sexuality.

With more than fifteen years of experience teaching Portuguese and Spanish in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States, I see language learning as an opportunity to foster curiosity, creativity, and meaningful engagement with culture. My teaching centers on task-based instruction that prepares students to use language to accomplish meaningful tasks in real-world contexts. I incorporate authentic materials—including shows, films, comics, board and card games, and trivia—to make learning engaging, relevant, and culturally rich.