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 study Linguistics, Native American & Indigenous Studies, and Spanish. I am passionate about social justice, language-learning, 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.
Before this class, I had no idea what visual and cultural studies actually encompassed. Every chat with Prof. Broner opened my eyes to a different analysis or method for interpreting literature, and for that, I feel truly lucky! We got to discuss films made by Indigenous women from all over Latin America, exposing the class to distinct ways of interacting with and stewarding the environment.
This Spring term is my first term at Dartmouth with my major decided and declared. I am truly excited to go around campus, attend classes, and hang out at Anonymous Hall — where the Linguistics department is located — as an official BA candidate! So, to honour and celebrate the officialization of my major, I decided to take three classes that will count towards my graduation.
For clarification, I am now a Linguistics modified with Native American & Indigenous Studies major, as well as a Spanish minor. Thus, I will be taking LING21 — Phonology, and LING 80.09 — Speech Surrogates, both with Prof. Laura McPherson. One of the reasons I decided to double up on my course load with Prof. McPherson is because, for the past four months, I have been working under her guidance on her research project on speech surrogacy. Thus, I am not only super interested in the topic of our lesson, but also somewhat familiar with the discussions we will be having and the materials we will be studying.
Moreover, I will be taking NAIS30.26 — Indigenous Geographies. This class, taught by Prof. Pochedley, focuses on the environmental ethics and interspecies relationalities from the perspective of Native populations, something I am truly interested in. Also, this class will count towards the NAIS portion of my major, for which I am only missing one class. It will also be useful to fulfill a distributive requirement of mine. As many other liberal arts colleges, Dartmouth has a set of expected fields students have to dive into at least once throughout their time here. Those are for students to end up with a well-rounded education, that does not focus on only one aspect of scholastic work. This class, interestingly, will fulfill my TMV (Traditions of Thought, Meaning & Value).
It is incredible to look back at where I was as a freshman — so dislocated, not knowing what to do next — with the eyes I have today. I am so glad to be a sophomore who has already been abroad, declared a major, and is close to finishing all his distributive requirements. Dartmouth truly is a place where you learn to be the best version of yourself, and I am happy to say that it works amazingly well!
Through Dartmouth's Guarini Institute for International Study, I am getting to take classes and experience life at Wellesley College, an all-women's school!
Academics can be challenging at Dartmouth. But there are lots of groups across campus here to support you through your academic journey. Read on for my experience asking for help and a few organizations that might be helpful to you!
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
