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.
Junior spring—your third year's final term right before you become a senior—can be a bit of a rollercoaster for some. I know that, for me, it was a time of feeling challenged: I was second-doubting my choice of double majoring, considering an additional minor, while still dabbling in theatre and radio projects. It was also a time of making decisions: should I be pursuing an honours thesis in my department? Should I be already looking for post-graduate options? Am I falling behind from my peers?
Luckily, I am coming out of this crazy term on top of everything. And within the chaos, I still managed to enjoy my classes and take the most out of each one of them. I took two Spanish courses—SPAN50.06: Framing Gender and Ecology and SPAN80.26: Dalí, Lorca and Buñuel in America, as well as a geography class GEO09.01: Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
My choice of Spanish courses, as you might know if you're a follower of this blog, was due to my major. As a double major, I am only missing a couple credits in Spanish to finish my degrees, and SPAN80.26 offered me the opportunity of a culminating research experience in the area; I am lucky to say that I am thoroughly enjoying both of these classes.
On the other hand, my Geography class has been somewhat of a personal challenge. While I certainly only took it because I needed to meet Dartmouth's distributive requirements—a mandatory element of every students' liberal arts curriculum—learning how to make maps was an actual interest of mine. From all the distributive requirements ranging from the arts and literature to the sciences and technology, I was only missing my laboratory and science requirements. Thus, GIS was the perfect choice for me as someone who is quite unfamiliar with STEM to complete a Lab, while also learning some really fun soft and hard skills.
As scary as the world outside of college might be, I am certain that my classes are preparing me for anything I might run into after senior year and graduation. That's what I really learned this past spring term.
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
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!
Unlike some other universities, many of the STEM lecture classes at Dartmouth require concurrent enrollment in a laboratory section. What is it like navigating that time as a student?
