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.
As I write this, I am sitting at Novack Café trying to catch up with work and debriefing this past two days with my friends. Although I did lose some track of my assignments and readings, I am now back on to working, and getting everything done. What is most impressive for me is that, if anything, this weekend taught me that Dartmouth offers a plethora of means for students to be able to conciliate their academic responsibilities with their social life.
The main concert!
In case you are wondering what I am talking about, Green Key is a music festival organized by the college's Programming Board. This year, the headliners were Kyle, Saint Motel, and Doechii. But, besides the main show on Friday, there were activities happening all around the campus. On Friday, for my drill – where I instruct Portuguese for learners of it as a second language – we had a fun, outdoor class. And, from the moment I left my last class Friday, I started partying with my friends. After the main concert, we went to a friend of our's fraternity, where we met up with the rest of our group.
Lovely time outside!
Saturday, it was no different. I spent the whole day outside. We got to play with water guns on the Collis lawn and have a nice little picnic on the Green. It was, with no doubt, one of my favourite weekends at college.
For me, as I try to catch up with my work now, I am amazed at how I managed to have so much fun and still have time to do my work.
Before coming to Dartmouth, I was warned a lot of times about its party culture and intense nights. Nonetheless, that is nothing to be scared of, as I found out. Managing your social life, your academics, and taking part in these Dartmouth traditions are part of why this college is the right one for me.
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!
