Laura Vieira

Blurred image of the arch used as background for stylistic purposes.

PhD Candidate

Teaching Assistant of Portuguese and Spanish

M.A.

Olá! I was born in Roraima, Brazil, and I am a sixth year PhD candidate in Romance Languages, studying the construction and representation of Latin American identities in contemporary comic books and graphic novels. During my Master's at Universidade Federal Flumimense (Niteói - RJ), I researched contemporary Brazilian literature and graphic novel adaptations, and the representation of indigenous identities in the Amazon. I have over 10 years of classroom experience with students of all ages - from kindergarten to veterans. I'm a lover of music, literature, film, TV and new medias of all kinds! I have a little tuxedo cat (Kiwi) and a 100lb dog (Tally). I speak un peu de French, and I'm currently studying Italian and Dutch!

Editor-in-Chief: Fala Aí, award-winning, student-run publication about the Lusophone world, Portuguese Program at UGA

Outreach Administration Committee Chair: International Student Advisory Board (ISAB), Department of International Student Life (ISL) at UGA

Grants and Awards:

Dolores Artau Scholarship - Department of Romance Languages, UGA (2024)
Nina Salant Hellerstein Professional Development Fund - Department of Romance Languages, UGA (2024)
Brazilian Studies Travel Grant, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, UGA (2024)
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award - Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA (2023)
Giving Voice to the Voiceless Program Grant, awarded to the Fala Aí magazine team - Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, UGA (2021)

Research

Research Interests:

Contemporary Brazilian and Latin American literature; comics and graphic narratives; women's literature and comics; narratives of displacement; (re)construction of national identities (with especial focus on Amazonian marginalized discourses); intersemiotic translation; cultural literacy and literature teaching; gender studies; representation of marginalized identities in media.

Frequently Taught Courses

Courses Regularly Taught:

Selected Publications

Selected Publications:

Conference presentation: Modern language Association (MLA) Convention, Philadelphia. Indigenous thought and the environmental crisis in the graphic novel Os Donos da Terra (2024)

Book review: Smiling in the Darkness, by Adelaide Freitas (Tagus Press, 2020). The Journal of Lusophone Studies, vol 7, no 1 (2022) (link).

Conference presentation: 23^rd Annual Conference on the Americas, University of North Georgia. Angola Janga: a graphic retelling of Brazilian quilombos (2020).

Book chapter: "A ilustração como alternativa para o problema da incomunicabilidade na experiência do imigrante". [Illustration as an alternative to the problem of incomunication in the immigrant experience]. Histórias em quadrinhos em diálogo. Eds. S. Silva, G. de Menezes. Brazil: Editora Bordô-Grená, 2019, 15-24. Web. (link)

Paper: "Experiência de leitura e escrita literária no ensino médio" [An experience of reading and writing literature in high school]. Brazil: Revista Querubim (2016), v. 2. Web (link).

Education

Education:

2025 (estimated) - Ph.D., University of Georgia: Romance Languages

2019 - M.A., Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil: Literary Studies, Brazilian literature and Literary theories. Dissertation title: A falácia que persiste: a busca por identidade e futuro no romance e na HQ Dois irmãos.

2017 - B.A., Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil: Portuguese and Lusophone Literatures, Teaching degree

2015 – 2016 Institutional Scholarship Program of Teaching Initiation (PIBID/CAPES - UFF). Project title: Experiência de leitura e escrita no Ensino Médio: crônica e conto.