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.
At Dartmouth, we are lucky to live in an extremely scenic environment. The natural landscape that surrounds campus is simply incredible. Nonetheless, among all the fun activities one can find in and out of campus, my favourite has to be visiting the Montshire Museum of Science.
During my First Year Trips — the first Dartmouth tradition freshmen are exposed to, where we go on trips in small groups led by upperclassmen and start making our first college friends — I went to the museum for the first time. Since, I have been craving for an opportunity to go again and show it to my friends. This week, finally, I decided to go there, now with my boyfriend. It was a genius idea for a date, honestly, but the museum is a nice activity for anyone!
The outdoors of the museum is full of super cute statutes!
Although seemingly focused on the experience of children, the Montshire Museum is very interesting no matter your age. I was stunned to see how much I actually learnt there, honestly! As a museum of science, they try to make very complex physics, biology, and chemistry concepts understandable to you. And they do it in such a fun way that there is no way you won't learn – and even if you don't, at least you will have a great time! Something very nice to note about the museum as well is that it often offers internship or study-work opportunities for Dartmouth students, which is incredibly cool if you are interested in science or education.
Super cute turtles!
Furthermore, the museum is located just across the bridge that connects Hanover to the state of Vermont. The walk might take somewhere between 20-40 minutes, but I promise it is one of the prettiest views around. Crossing the river and turning right onto the less urban, more rural side of the region is a super pleasant trip to do – whether alone or in a group, whether you are 12 or 21.
In our busy Dartmouth schedules, it often gets hard to make time for activities like this. But, particularly, it does me very well to take these breaks with people I love and try and make the most of the beautiful area we live in here in the Upper Valley
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
