Portuguese (ROPO)

This beginning Portuguese hybrid course combines the traditional classroom format with online instruction. This course introduces students to contemporary Brazilian and Lusophone cultures through film, music, news media and internet resources. Along with the acquisition of language skills, ROPO 10103 emphasizes the active use of written and spoken Portuguese in context. This course meets three times in the classroom plus online requirements.

This is an introductory, first-year language sequence with equal focus on speaking, listening, reading, and writing. An appreciation for the diverse cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world is also encouraged through readings, music, videos, and class discussion.

This course sequence is designed for students with at least intermediate-level proficiency in Spanish. Classroom activities emphasize the acquisition of basic language structures, vocabulary, and sound systems, as well as the active use of spoken language in context. Students are introduced to the diverse cultures of the Portuguese-speaking countries through current video, printed media, music, and short fiction. This sequence is followed by ROPO 20201 or ROPO 20202. ROPO 10105 - 10106 and either ROPO 20201 or ROPO 20202 together fulfill the language requirement.

This course sequence is designed for students with at least intermediate-level proficiency in Spanish. Classroom activities emphasize the acquisition of basic language structures, vocabulary, and sound systems, as well as the active use of spoken language in context. Students are introduced to the diverse cultures of the Portuguese-speaking countries through current video, printed media, music, and short fiction. This sequence is followed by ROPO 20201 or ROPO 20202. ROPO 10105 - 10106 and either ROPO 20201 or ROPO 20202 together fulfill the language requirement.

Designed for highly motivated students this intensive course along with the acquisition of language skills emphasizes the active use of written and spoken Portuguese in communicative contexts: dialogues, songs, movies, TV, etc..Students attend class regularly with an instructor M W & F, and practice Portuguese through daily online activities. ROPO 10115 is followed by ROPO 20201, and together they fulfill the language requirement and prepare students to study abroad in Brazil.

Through selected readings in Portuguese, Brazilian, and Lusophone African literatures, films, newspaper and magazine articles, and popular music, students discuss a variety of cultural issues and expand their vocabulary. Particular attention is placed on reviewing major topics in Portuguese grammar and on developing students' writing abilities. ROPO 20201 fulfills the language requirement and prepares students to study abroad in Brazil.

This is a continuation of ROPO 20201 but it may be taken separately. ROPO 20202 is a fourth-semester language course designed to develop facility in speaking, reading, and writing at an advanced level. Discussions and writing assignments are based on films as well as on short stories, chronicles and newspaper articles.

ROPO 20205 is a 3-credit intensive intermediate course that focuses on developing all communicative skills in Portuguese, that is, reading, writing, listening and speaking. The course will focus on authentic material (short stories, movies, music, TV News, series, soap operas, chronicles, etc.) to prepare students to communicate more effectively in Portuguese. By the end of this intensive course, students will be able to express their ideas in a more sophisticated and advanced level. ROPO 20205 is followed by any 30000 course in Portuguese or above. Pre-requisites: ROPO 10106 (Portuguese for Spanish Speakers II), ROPO 10115 (Intensive Beginning Portuguese) or placement test.

This independent study covers the intermediate second-year language sequence with equal focus on oral and writing skills. It includes a review of basic grammar and then transitions into more difficult features of Portuguese. Students learn to discuss and write about Lusophone cultural topics, current events, and literary texts.

Students will hone their oral and written skills through the study of a myriad of the most popular cultural activities in Brazil. MPB, Música Sertaneja, Pop, Funk, Soap Operas, Popular Movies, Soccer and Volleyball will provide students with a rich panorama of Contemporary Pop Culture in Brazil while revealing deeper conflicts and tensions within Brazilian society. Offered in Portuguese.

Understanding Brazilian complex social and cultural issues through the study of diverse music genres, from the traditional Samba, Bossa Nova, and MPB to the more contemporary and daring Funk Carioca and Tecnobrega (offered in Portuguese).

In this course, students will have a broad introduction to the masterpieces of Brazilian Literature, from colonial times to modernismo. Our corpus will include works by great masters such as Gregório de Matos, José de Alencar, Machado de Assis, Clarice Lispector, and Jorge Amado. Furthermore, the close reading of these texts will be enriched by the analysis of contemporary music, graphic novels, TV shows and movies that adapt, reshape, recycle and remediate Brazilian literary classics. Taught in Portuguese.

In this course we will explore trends, topics and themes present in contemporary Portuguese and Brazilian literature. We will discuss how they reflect contemporary issues in culture and society. We will also analyze the way fictional narratives and poems are reconfigured in the cinema and music of Portugal and Brazil. Gender, race, social disparity and censorship struggles are some of the topics we will discuss.

This course is an introduction to contemporary literature written by women in Portugal, Brazil, and Lusophone Africa. We will start by asking the question “What is women’s literature?” and throughout the course we will discuss a variety of literary genres that will aid in our discussions about the portrayal of women’s lives, aspirations, and concerns in literature. We will examine the formal structure of crônicas, short stories, novels, and poetry and will evaluate how women from different cultures portray their role as individuals as well as in family and society. The course will also examine how their fictional works voice similar or differing concerns depending on the writers’ race, class, landscape, and origin. Some of the writers we will study include Natália Correia, Maria Judite de Carvalho, Clarice Lispector, Conceição Evaristo, Cíntia Moscovich, Lídia Jorge, and Paulina Chiziane. Taught in Portuguese.

This course examines 20th and 21st Century Portuguese and Brazilian culture through cinema and music. As we explore the artistic achievements of Portuguese and Brazilian writers, musicians, and filmmakers over the last one hundred years, students will examine topics such as social inequalities and power struggle, the importance of soccer, carnival, music and religion, as well as major historical events that have impacted popular cultural productions in Brazil and Portugal. Our goal is to evaluate how films and music portray the culture of these countries, and to discuss how artistic manifestations offer a reference or a different perspective on the interpretation of the society and the culture of Brazilians and Portuguese. Conducted in English.

From the Roman and Muslim roots to the Portuguese Empire, from Monarchy to Democracy, this course examines the impact of history in Portugal's cultural identity. In the course students will discuss how major cultural and historic events played a role in the development of the country, as well as observe the presence of multiple cultural voices in contemporary cultural productions. Students will experience and develop an in-depth perspective of the historical, social, ethnic, and cultural layers that make Portugal a vibrant and unique country. History, architecture, arts, and sports will provide an in-depth perspective of this multicultural country, and the ways in which all these voices come together to make Portugal the center of the Lusophone world. Our course will also emphasize the struggles that the Portuguese society still faces, and the current discussions and solutions found to remediate such inequities. The course will be taught in English.

Specialized reading related to the student's area of study.

Students will be able to improve their argumentative and analytical skills through the study of key issues and concepts in film studies. Film form and narrative, gender, class, stereotypes, the film auteur, cultural industry, violence and social denunciation will be some of the topics explored with relevant Brazilian case studies. Special emphasis will be given to the retomada -the rebirth of Brazilian cinema from the mid 1990s on - with in-depth analyses of feature films such as Carlota Joaquina (Carla Camurati, 1995), Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, 1998), CIdade de Deus (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) and Tropa de Elite (José Padilha, 2007); documentary movies such as Edifício Master (Eduardo Coutinho, 2002) and Santiago (João Moreira Salles, 2007) , as well as short movies such as Recife Frio (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2009) and Eu não Quero Voltar Sozinho (Daniel Ribeiro, 2010). Taught in English.

This course aims to evaluate how major cultural, social and historical events are portrayed in cinematographic productions of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. We will explore issues such as gender, racial and social disparities, the legacies of dictatorship and the colonial wars, the Luso-African struggles for independence, the role of the language in building a nation, and the influence of the Portuguese culture in its former colonies. Our goal is to investigate how film productions from and about those countries contest hegemonic accounts, and to examine the interconnections between history, memory and cultural identity and praxis. Films such as All is Well, by Pocas Pascoal (Angola), Dribbling Fate, by Fernando Vendrell (Cape Verde), Sleepwalking Land by Teresa Prata (Mozambique), Cats Don't Have Vertigo, by Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos, April Captains, by Maria de Medeiros (Portugal), as well as the documentaries Lusitanian Illusion, by Joao Canijo, and Hope the Pitanga Cherries Grow, by Kiluanje Liberdade and Ondjaki will serve as a vehicle for a deeper and broader understanding of how social, racial and cultural issues play a role in the past and present time in Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. Conducted in English.

This course primarily examines cinema, music and literature of Brazil, Portugal, and Luso-African countries such as Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Despite historical differences and geographical distance, these Portuguese-speaking countries share a common legacy in regards to cultural and artistic manifestations. Throughout the course, we will discuss issues related to the contrasts between stereotype and reality, rural and urban lives, as well as race and gender struggles, and how ideological and political changes affect culture and the arts in those countries. Special attention will be given to the artistic exchanges between Portugal and its former colonies. Andrucha Waddington, Eduardo Coutinho, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Vinicius de Morais, João Canijo, José Fonseca e Costa, Mia Couto, José Eduardo Agualusa, Ondjaki, José Saramago, and Fernando Pessoa are among the authors and film directors we will study. Conducted in English.

This course examines the political, social, and cultural history of Portugal from the establishment of the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1933 to the consolidation of democracy in the 1980s and beyond. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that draws on historical documents, literature, music, and film, students will explore the mechanisms of authoritarian control, the effects of the colonial wars, the transformative Carnation Revolution of 1974, and the complex process of democratic transition and today’s current political dynamics in the country. Special emphasis will be placed on resistance movements, censorship, and the politics of memory. The course also considers how these legacies continue to shape contemporary Portuguese society and political life today. This course will be taught in English.

This course will focus on metanarratives of racial formation in Brazil and their correlation with social inequality. An interdisciplinary approach will be used to examine how the notion of "racial paradise" was created in the first half of the 20th century, and how it has been challenged and deconstructed over the last decades by the Brazilian intelligentsia. (offered in English).

Portugal’s cultural identity has been shaped by a unique interplay of religion, music, and sport—three defining elements encapsulated in the iconic trio: Fado, Futebol, and Fátima. This course explores the historical and contemporary significance of these cultural pillars, examining how they have influenced national identity, collective memory, and social dynamics in Portugal. We will delve into Fado, Portugal’s soulful musical tradition, to understand its role in expressing themes of nostalgia, longing (saudade), and resilience. We will analyze how Futebol (soccer) has transcended sport to become a symbol of national pride and social unity, reflecting class, politics, and globalization. Finally, we will examine the significance of Fátima, one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world, as a focal point of Portuguese religiosity and cultural heritage. In the second half of the course, we will shift our focus to Afro-Brazilian influences on contemporary Portuguese culture, exploring how diasporic, colonial legacies, and cultural exchange have shaped Portugal’s modern identity. Through primary sources, music, media, and contemporary debates, students will gain a deeper understanding of Portugal’s evolving cultural identity and the ways in which tradition and modernity intersect in a globalized world. Taught in English.

This course aims to understand some of the aspects that deeply affected the relations between Portugal and Lusophone Africa in the 20th and 21st century through fiction, cinema, essay and primary sources. We will explore issues such as the link between race and migration, the development of cultural identity, the struggle to belong, and the complex connection between Portugal and Africa. Despite the geographical distance, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde share a common legacy of colonialism, racism, gender gap, language and war. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to examine the ways in which these struggles are corroborated and/or contradicted by official narratives, and analyze the contemporary context of Portugal-African relations. Conducted in English.

What are the new challenges for the Brazilian democracy and human development post-impeachment? What are the current issues in race, religion, class, gender and politics that are shaping the present and the future of the Giant of the South? (offered in English).

Images of Brazil often evoke stereotypical images of soccer and carnaval. In this course, we will study these staples of Brazilian culture beyond the shallow confines of stereotypes. History, Sociology, and Cultural Studies will all contribute for an interdisciplinary approach to understand the complexities of Contemporary Brazilian society. Offered in English.

In this dynamic and interactive course, students will develop their oral skills by discussing current issues and hot topics in Brazil and beyond through Brazilian news outlets. TV news shows, newspaper websites and online portals will be used to discuss contemporary Brazilian politics, economy, society, entertainment and much more! Pre-requisite: Portuguese Intermediate 1 (ROPO20201).

Specialized reading related to the student's area of study.