Ei! My name is Antônio Jorge Medeiros Batista Silva (yes—four last names!) and I'm a '25 from Governador Valadares, Brazil. My journey to Dartmouth has crossed two continents, three countries, and over 10 schools—and I'm a strong believer that everyone's path to the Big Green was unique in a way. At Dartmouth, I am interested in studying Linguistics, Native American & Indigenous Studies, and Spanish. I am really passionate about social justice, learning languages, and the oxford comma!
This class is an introduction to the Spanish minor and major courses and, although I did not expect to particularly like it, it not only turned out to be my favourite but it made me start considering a degree in the department!
In this class, we analysed different productions of Latinx American theatre. Prof. Analola Santana was probably the best person I met this year at Dartmouth. Being her student was a very important experience as I try to navigate my potential majors and minors.
In this class, I was able to carve time out of my busy Dartmouth schedule to study and learn my Indigenous language: Krenak. With the help of Prof. Gokke, all students were encouraged to develop a final project that spoke to their community's needs for language learning and revitalisation. It was an extremely important class for me, not only academically, but also for my personal healing process.
I had the honour of spending my sophomore fall in Madrid, taking part in the Spanish FSP. There, Prof. Martín was not only a great professor, responsible for my favourite lecture of the program, but also an incredible company throughout our classes and in-country trips. Great way to wrap up my Spanish minor, honestly!
This was my second class in the NAIS department, and thus it took me one step closer to wrapping up my major. Nonetheless, it was Prof. Powell's genuine charisma and caring personality that made it my favourite of the term!
This course was definitely life changing! Prof. Pochedley, a visiting post-doc of the Potawatomi nation did a great job at keeping the students engaged while teaching us to see the land we inhabit as a source of knowledge and spirituality. In a majority Indigenous classroom, we got to develop individual projects related to our traditional homelands, learning to navigate the world through Native world lenses.
Prof. Gómez is one of those profs I've always wanted to take a class with. His work with the Horror genre in Modern Spanish literatures amazes me, and it was an honour to guide in-class discussions and develop my own research on the themes of science, testimony, and fear.
LING54 is an umbrella course: the actual content of the course may vary each year, but it is the common letter-number code to refer to the course taught abroad by your accompanying Dartmouth Linguistics professor. In this year's Linguistics Foreign Study Program (FSP), LING54 was a 'Language Documentation' class, wonderfully taught by Prof. David Peterson.
Hello there! It's Antônio here, I'm finally back in the woods, and I couldn't be happier about it!
As I explained in my last blog post before leaving for summer break, I deliberately chose not to spend my Sophomore summer on campus—a key part of many people's Dartmouth experience. By choosing not to be here, I chose not to partake in a series of class-focused events and activities with my friends, and—if I'm being honest—it gave me some intense FOMO ('fear of missing out').
But, on the other hand, I got to spend extra time at home, which was bliss. And more than that, I was awarded an international internship grant from the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, so I didn't need to worry about financing my own travels!
My study companion!
During my time away, I worked with Krenak (my Indigenous language), developing digital educational resources for second language learners. It was thanks to the generous support, both from Dartmouth and from Middlebury College's Davis Projects for Peace, that I got to go home and share with my community everything I learned here as a Linguistics student. The grant opportunity was presented to me by Dickey Center's Peter Jenkinson, our campus' Projects for Peace liaison.
Although I was indeed missing out on many cool events that happened on campus during the summer, it was extremely rewarding to do such important work—especially as a Krenak language reclaimer myself. Moreover, it was a privilege to feel like, even from afar, I was still connected to this place in the larger scheme of things. It was because of the linguistic training I've got here so far that I was able to serve my community in this way. It almost felt like I could finally bridge the gap between these two words I've been navigating for the past two years: my home, my traditions, and language, and my world at Dartmouth of formal education and academic work. For the first time, I could give back the things and experiences I had the privilege of gaining over my time abroad.
After returning from an enriching study abroad program, I'm diving into a bustling spring semester here at Dartmouth. Here are my four courses I'm taking this term!
Dartmouth's liberal arts curriculum pushes students to explore new departments and draw connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Come explore my Economics, Physics, and Asian, Societies, Cultures, and Languages classes!
Over half of Dartmouth students study abroad at least once during their undergraduate journeys—quite a high percentage, right? Do you want to know how to best prepare for your own abroad experience? Come check what it was like for me.
