LORRAINE LEU
Address: Department of Spanish and Portuguese & Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies The University of Texas at Austin Sid Richardson Hall 1.310, 2300 Red River Street D0800, Austin, TX 78712.
Present Appointment: Since 01/01/11 Associate Professor, UT Austin.
Previous Appointments: 2007-09 Chair, Hispanic, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, University of Bristol, England. 2007- Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Portuguese & Brazilian Studies, Fall 2010 University of Bristol. 2002-07 Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Portuguese & Brazilian Studies, University of Bristol. 2000-02 Coordinator, Centre for Brazilian Studies, Middlesex University, London, with responsibility for directing the research activities and consolidating the research and public profile of the Centre. Lecturer in Spanish & Portuguese.
Academic qualifications: 1996-2000 PhD, King’s College, University of London, Department of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies. Major field: Cultural Studies. Geographic specialization: Brazil.
1993-1995 MA with Distinction in Latin American Area Studies (emphasis Cultural Studies, Cultural History, Anthropology), Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London.
1988-1992 BA with honors in Spanish & Portuguese (emphasis Cultural Studies), King’s College, University of London, Departments of Spanish & Spanish American Studies and Portuguese & Brazilian Studies.
Research: I have an established research profile in the area of Brazilian Cultural Studies, drawing from the areas of cultural history, in particular music and film history, cultural geography, black studies and urban studies. My first book (Brazilian Popular Music, Ashgate, 2006) was selected by The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory as one of the most important books in the field that year.
My current research project examines how Brazil’s whitening ideology materialized in a major urban reform project that was carried out in 1922, the year that the country celebrated its centenary of independence. My project makes race and ethnicity fundamental to understanding both official efforts to organize space, and alternative forms of producing space by those whom the state and the municipal government wished to eradicate from the capital. The project uses as its case study the destruction of Morro do Castelo, a hillside community in downtown Rio populated by Afro- descendants, Portuguese, and Italian immigrants. The book will explore how the neighborhood was constructed in official and press discourses, in urban imaginaries, and through the spatial practices of its inhabitants.
Since 2000 I have been an Editor of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, and the ongoing process of assessing submissions with my fellow editors allows me to anticipate directions and follow debates on a wide range of issues and across many disciplines within the area of Latin Americanism. I take considerable pride in my role in shaping the Journal’s contribution to the subject, and my editorial activities have led to many productive intellectual exchanges and contacts with colleagues around the world.
Publications: Authored book: Brazilian Popular Music: Caetano Veloso and the Regeneration of Tradition (Aldershot & Burlington, VT: Ashgate: 2006) (xii + 180 pages).
Articles and Chapters in Books: “Defiant geographies: black spaces of cultural expression in early 20th century Rio de Janeiro”, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnicities, 9.2 (2014), 177-194.
“Soundtrack to Roguery: Music and Malandragem in the City”. In Lisa Shaw and Robert Stone, eds., Screening Song in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. (Manchester: Manchester University Press: 2012), 264-282.
“Performing Race and Gender in Brazil: Karim Ainouz’s Madame Satã”, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 4.1 (2010-11), 73-95.
“Spaces of remembrance and representation in the city: José Padilha’s Bus 174”, Luso-Brazilian Review, 45.2, Winter 2008-9, 177-189.
“Drug traffickers and the contestation of space in contemporary Rio de Janeiro”, E- Compós – Revista da Escola de Comunicações, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 11.1 (2008), online journal.
“Brazilianism, Culture and Consumption in the United Kingdom”, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Vol. LXXXIV, 4-5 (2007), 645-652.
“Music and National Culture: Pop Music and Resistance in Brazil”, Portuguese Cultural Studies, inaugural issue (Winter 2006), 36-44.
“A imprensa e o espetáculo da violência no Rio de Janeiro contemporâneo”, in Micael Herschmann (ed.) Comunicação, Cultura e Consumo, (Editora Epapers: Rio de Janeiro: 2005).
“The Press and the Spectacle of Violence in Contemporary Rio de Janeiro”, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 13.3 (2004), 343-355.
“Fantasia e fetiche: consumindo o Brasil na Inglaterra”, Eco-Pós, Revista da Escola de Comunicação, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 7 (2004), 13-17.
“Language and Memory in Popular Song: Brazil’s Caetano Veloso”, Journal of Romance Studies (Vol. 3.1, Spring 2003), pp. 343-355.
“Raise Yuh Hand, Jump Up and Get On Bad: New Developments in Soca Music in Trinidad”, Latin American Music Review, 21.1: Spring/Summer 2000, pp. 45-58.
Reviews & Other Publications: 2 entries on Brazilian cinema in the Directory of World Cinema: Brazil, eds. Natalia Pinazza & Louis Bayman (Intellect: Bristol: 2013).
Choro: A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music, T. Livingston-Isenhour & T. Caracas García (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press: 2005) for the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Vol. 84.2, 2007.
The Social History of the Brazilian Samba, Shaw, L. (Aldershot: Ashgate: 1999) for the Journal of Iberian & Latin American Studies, June, 2000.
The Unedited Diaries of Carolina Maria de Jesus, (orgs.) Robert M. Levine & José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick: 1999), for Portuguese Studies, October, 2000.
33 entries on literature, popular music and art in the Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Latin American & Caribbean Culture, eds. Mike González, Dan Balderston & Ana López (Routledge: London: 2000).
Translation from Spanish & Portuguese of the manuscript of Modernity in Latin America, ed. Vivian Schelling (Verso: London: 2000).
Research Grants & Fellowships: • LLILAS, UT Faculty Led Research Initiative Funding, 2014-15. • The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellowship Endowment, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, Fall 2010. • Bristol University Research Fellowship, 2009/2010 session. • British Academy Research and Conference Grant, 2007. • Bristol Institute for Research in the Arts & Humanities Grants, 2003, 2006/7. • Bristol University Research Fellowship, 2004/2005 session. • British Academy Conference Organization Grant, 2004.
Scholarly Presentations: • "Defiant Geographies: Race, Ethnicity, and Space in 1920s Rio de Janeiro", 9th APSA Congress, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Oct 23-25, 2014. • "Defiant Geographies: Race, Ethnicity, Class and a Destroyed Community in 1920s Rio de Janeiro", 12th International Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association, King's College, University of London, England, Aug 20-23, 2014. • "Showcasing Rio: Urbanization, race/ethnicity, and global spectacle", Annual Conference of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, December 13- 14, 2013, University of Zurich, Switzerland. • “Race, migration, and urban space in Brazil, possibilities for inter-disciplinary research”, University of Brasília, June 3rd, 2013. • “Defiant geographies: black spaces of cultural expression in early 20th century Rio de Janeiro”, 27th Annual Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, University of West Georgia, November 1-3, 2012. • “Eradicating blackness in the ideal city: Rio de Janeiro’s International Exposition of 1922”, Eleventh International Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Sep 6-8, 2012. • “The Killing of Place: 1920s Rio de Janeiro and Urbanization by Elimination”, Geography Department, UT, April 20, 2012. • “Cinema and the favela as racialized space”, 30th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, San Francisco, 23-26 May 2012. • “Drug traffickers and the Contestation of Space in Rio de Janeiro”, Republics of Fear: Understanding Endemic Violence in Latin America Today, LLILAS, UT Austin, March 4-5, 2010. • “Brazilian Cinema, Mass Media and Criminal Subjectivities”, New Approaches to Latin American Popular Culture Conference, Cambridge University, April 25- 26, 2009. • “Drug Traffickers, Urban Space and Representation in Rio de Janeiro”, 9th Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association, Tulane University, New Orleans, March 27-29, 2008. • “Urban Criminality in Brazilian Cinema”, Centre for Brazilian Studies, King’s College, University of London, January 18, 2008. • “Urban Reform and the Destruction and Re-constitution of Community in Post-abolition Rio de Janeiro”, 2nd Congress of the Association of British & Irish Lusophonists, Bristol, January 11-12, 2008. • “Organized Crime, Policing and Urban Space in Rio de Janeiro”, Conflict, Culture & Territory Workshop, Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts, November 21, 2007. • “Spaces of Remembrance and Representation in the City”, lecture at the British Academy Urban Latin America in Film & Music Symposium, University of Manchester, October 26th, 2007. • “Urban Violence in Brazil”, Debating Violence in Latin America, School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, October 10th, 2007. • “Popular Cultural Practices & the Incipient Mass Media in Brazil”, 27th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Montréal, Canada, 5th-8th September 2007. • “Music, Afro-Bahian Community and Urban Space in Early 20th Century Rio de Janeiro”, 32nd Congress of the International Association of Caribbeanists, Salvador, Brazil, May 28th-June 1st, 2007. • “Lula and the Future of the Left in Brazil”, Where is Latin America Going?: Recent Changes in Latin American Politics, Department of Politics, University of Bristol, November 8th, 2006. • “Delinquency, Representation and Remembrance in Rio de Janeiro”, Decentering Latin American Studies, 26th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 15th – 18th March, 2006. • “Representing Urban Violence in Brazilian Documentary Filmmaking”, University of Bristol Film Studies Symposium, Department of Drama, Film & Television, January 24th, 2006. • “Communities at War: Contesting Public Space in Contemporary Rio de Janeiro”, 50th Anniversary Conference of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain & Ireland, Valencia, Spain, 28th March – 2nd April, 2005. • “Memorial Spaces in the Cinematic City”, Visual Representations of Violence Seminar Series, School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, January 26th, 2005. • “Brazilian Popular Music and Politics”, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Leeds University, October 9th, 2004. • “The Tradition of the Love Song in Brazilian Popular Music”, School of Arts & Culture, Middlesex University, April 10th, 2004. • “Transatlantic Vocal Sampling: Caetano Veloso in Exile”, Latin American Popular Music: Transcultural Samplings & Global Reverberations, Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, 5th – 6th December, 2003. • “Caetano Veloso and the Songwriting Tradition in Brazil”, Centre for Latin American Studies, Cambridge University, February 11th, 2003. • “The End of Latin Americanism?”, plenary discussion with fellow editors of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, The New Latin Americanism: Cultural Studies Beyond Borders, Centre for Latin American Cultural Studies, University of Manchester, 21-22nd June, 2002. • The Manguebeat Movement and the Rethinking of Regional Identity in Northeast Brazil”, Latin American Music Seminar, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, 28th April, 2001. • “The Transmission of Memory in the Music of Caetano Veloso”, Birkbeck College, University of London. Latin American Popular Culture conference, July 11th, 2000. • “Language and Memory in Popular Song: Brazil’s Caetano Veloso”, Institute of Romance Studies, University of London, Cultures of Remembrance/Culture as Remembrance Conference, July 1st, 2000. • “The Tropicalist Movement in Brazil”, Hispanic & Luso-Brazilian Council, Canning House, London, 6th September, 1999. • “Fashioning Caetano Veloso: Style & Politics in the Tropicália Period”, Centre for the Study of Brazilian Culture & Society, King’s College London, 2nd March, 1998.
Conference organization: • Organizer, international conference, “The Future of Latin American Cultural Studies”, sponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and LLILAS, March 30-31, 2012. • Member, Organizational Committee, Lozano Long Conference, “Refashioning Blackness: Combating Racism in the Americas”, February 20-22, 2013. • Co-organizer, colloquium on Migration, Race & Urban Space, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 3, 2013.
Service: UT Service: LLILAS: • Associate Director for Student Programs, 2013-2015. • Graduate Adviser, 2011-2015. • Member of the EC, 2012-2013; 2013-2014; 2014-2015. • Member, Faculty Advisory Committee for the Brazil Center, 2012 to present. • Member, Search Committee, LLILAS/Anthropology Assistant Professorship, Spring, 2015. • Member, UT-FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) committee, Spring 2015. • Publications Committee, Spring semester 2011, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014. • Member, Search Committee, LLILAS/African & African Diaspora Studies Assistant Professorship, 2013-2014. • Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee for the Brazil Center, 2011-2012. • Graduate Admissions Committee, 2012-2013. • Graduate Program Review Committee, Spring 2012; charged with re- conceptualizing the LLILAS PhD. • Graduate Admissions Committee, 2011-2012. • Mellon/Faculty Research Leave Review Committee, December, 2011. • Artes Américas Faculty Committee, 2011-2012; charged with creating links between visiting Latin American performers and activities in the undergraduate and graduate classroom. • Latin American Filmmakers Committee, Fall semester 2011; charged with creating collaborations between UT Film Studies and the Cine Las Américas Film Festival in Austin. • Leader (with Fernando Lara, School of Architecture) of Faculty Seminar on Brazilian Urban Studies, Spring semester 2012. 8 UT faculty and 2 visiting faculty from 7 different disciplines participated.
Spanish & Portuguese: • Member of the EC, 2012-2013 • Graduate Admissions Committee, 2012-2013 • EC of the Graduate Studies Committee, 2012-2013 • Hons Thesis Adviser, 2012-2013 • Undergraduate Program Committee, Spring semester 2012 • Research Productivity Committee, Fall, 2011; charged with producing a system for quantifying and qualifying faculty research output. • Graduate Admissions Committee, 2011-2012. • Portuguese Coordinator, Spring semester 2012.
University: • International Area Expert, Travel Risk Assessment for International Office • Search Committee, African & African Diaspora Studies and LLILAS, 2013- 2014.
Service to the profession: • One of 7 editors of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies. • Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Eco-Pós, the communication studies journal published by the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. • Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Ângulo, the journal of literature and culture published by the University of São Paulo. • Member of LECC (Laboratório da Escola de Comunicação e Cultura) a project based at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, dedicated to undertaking critical readings of the media’s representation of minorities and marginalized communities, and to projects to facilitate more self- representations by favela dwellers in the mass media. • Peer reviewer for Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Ethnomusicology Forum, Luso- Brazilian Review, Music, Sound and the Moving Image, New Cinemas, Portuguese Studies. • Expert referee for the Leverhulme Trust, one of the largest research charities in the UK. • Proposal reviewer for Routledge Colloquials Language Series. • Proposal reviewer for Verso Books. • Consultant expert for BBC Bristol, Channel 4 Television, the Jornal do Brasil.
Roles held at previous institution between 2002-07:
• 2007-2009 Chair, Department of Hispanic, Portuguese & Latin American Studies, with 14 full time faculty members, between 6-8 part time staff at any given time and approximately 400 students. I was responsible to the Head of School for the strategic development and the day-to-day delivery of the curriculum, and the line management of faculty and staff in the Department. As Chair, I was also a member of the Departmental Research Committee, involved in strategic research planning and advising colleagues at all stages of their scholarship, from initial ideas to dissemination of their research. I worked with other members of the Committee to encourage collaborative work within the Department, the Faculty and beyond. • Director of Portuguese Studies. • Managing Admissions Tutor • Diversity Officer, School of Modern Languages (co-ordinating strategy for increasing intake of students under-represented in Higher Education)
Teaching: I can teach on a wide variety of subject areas and across several disciplines, offering courses on culture and society in Brazil, and also on Spanish-speaking Latin America. Several of my courses explore the inter-relationships between society and visual and aural cultures. I also have a research-led teaching interest in race, ethnicity, and urban space in Brazil.
I received the LLILAS Outstanding Faculty Award from the Graduate class of 2013.
Graduate: Course code: Course title: LAS 384 LLILAS Proseminar LAS 392P/POR 381 Cinema, Criminality & Violence in Brazil LAS 392P/POR 381 Cinema & Subalternity in Brazil LAS 392P/POR 381 Brazilian Cultural Theory POR 385L Conference Course: Contemporary Portuguese Literature
Undergraduate: LAS 370P/POR 350K Luso-Brazilian Film PRC 325E/LAS 370P Brazilian Popular Music UGS 303 Rio de Janeiro: Society & Culture BDP 321 Bridging the Disciplines Program: Connecting Internship Experience: Diane Enobabor, Fall 2010; Jesse Crandell, Fall 2014; Sam Hagan, Spring 2015.
Graduate Advising/exam committees: MA thesis adviser (LLILAS): Spencer Stoner (completed 2013) Alida Perrine (completed 2013) Daniele Coplin (completed 2013) David Hutchinson (will complete 2014) Mariana Morante (will complete 2014) Kate Layton (will complete 2014)
Comprehensive Exams Committee: Silvia Castro (Spanish & Portuguese, 2011) Eliseo Jacob (Spanish & Portuguese, 2012) Paula Park (Spanish & Portuguese, 2012) Dorian Jackson (Spanish & Portuguese, 2012) Christina McCoy (Spanish & Portuguese, 2012) Brian Bobbitt (Spanish & Portuguese, 2012) Leonardo Cardoso (School of Music, 2012) Franklin Strong (Comp Lit, 2012) Meg O’Dowdy (Spanish & Portuguese, 2013) Giulianna Zambrano (Spanish & Portuguese, 2013) Sandra Sotelo-Miller (Spanish & Portuguese, 2013) Cory Hahn (Comp Lit, 2013) Sam Cannon (Spanish & Portuguese, 2014) James Staiger (Spanish & Portuguese, 2014) Brandon McCullers (Spanish & Portuguese, 2014)
Qualifying Paper Advisor or 2nd Reader Megan Coxe (2nd reader, 2013) Célia Cordeiro (2nd reader, 2014)
PhD Adviser: Dorian Jackson (with Prof. Gabriela Polit) Célia Cordeiro
PhD Committees: Alexandre Lima (Spanish & Portuguese, defended Spring 2011) Silvia Castro (Spanish & Portuguese, defended Fall 2013) Leonardo Cardoso (School of Music, defended Fall 2013)
Giulianna Zambrano (Spanish & Portuguese, defending Fall 2014) Sandra Sotelo-Miller (Spanish & Portuguese, defending Fall 2014) Eliseo Jacob (Spanish & Portuguese, defended Fall 2014) Brian Bobbitt (Spanish & Portuguese, defending Spring 2015) Franklin Strong (Spanish & Portuguese, defending Spring 2015) Jonathan Fleck (Comparative Literature, defending 2016/7) Catalina Iannone (Spanish & Portuguese, defending 2016/7) Cory LeFevers (School of Music, defending 2016/7)
Courses Taught at Previous Institution: • Afro-Brazilian Cultural Histories on Screen (graduate/undergraduate) • Rhythm & Rhyme: Brazilian Popular Music & Poetry (undergraduate/graduate) • Latin American Cinema (graduate/undergraduate) • Brazilian Cinema (graduate/undergraduate) • Brazil: Empire to Republic (literature, history, society, politics, 1822-1930) (undergraduate) • Modern Brazil (culture, history, society, politics after 1930) (undergraduate) • Rethinking the Nation: Contemporary History & Fiction of Portugal & Portuguese Africa (undergraduate) • Introduction to the Literature of the Lusophone World (undergraduate)