This event has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision has been made out of an abundance of caution with the health and well-being of our guests and community in mind. We hope to have a new date soon.

What is Brazilian? A conversation on Brazilian language and identity in Miami and beyond
Marcus Avelar, Florida International University
Ivian Burochowski, Florida International University

3PM, GL 100A

In 2010, there were over 18,000 Brazilians in Broward County and over 17,000 in Miami-Dade, which motivated several heritage-language education programs in both counties. However, there are some questions we still need to answer, such as: How is Brazilian Portuguese maintained in Brazilian families and communities? Can you

be Latinx if you don’t speak Spanish? Can you be Hispanic if you speak Portuguese? What does it mean to be Latina/o in Brazil and in the U.S.? What does Latinidad mean, after all? Join us for a conversation on Brazilian language and identity and help us to answer these questions

Em 2010, havia mais de 18.000 brasileiros no condado de Broward e mais de 17.000 no condado de Miami-Dade, fato que contribuiu para o estabelecimento de uma série de programas de ensino de português como língua de herança na região. Contudo, ainda há perguntas que precisamos responder. Por exemplo: “Como o português brasileiro é mantido nas famílias e comunidades brasileiras?”, “É possível ser ‘Latinx’ sem saber falar espanhol?”, “É possível ser ‘hispânico’ falando ‘só’ português?”, “O que significa ser ‘latin@’ no Brasil e nos EUA?”. Enfim, o que o termo ‘latinidade’ quer dizer, no final das contas? Venha participar de uma conversa sobre língua e identidade brasileira e nos ajude a responder essas perguntas.

Marcus Vinicius Avelar (Ph.D., Univ. of Colorado, 2019) is the inaugural Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center of the Humanities in an Urban Context at FIU. Avelar’s work is interdisciplinary, making investments in religion, Brazilian studies, cultural and linguistic anthropology, sociocultural linguistics, critical race studies, feminist studies, and discourse analysis. At FIU, he is investigating the question of how Brazilianness figures in local constructions of Latinidad, how Brazilians orient to South Florida’s Spanish-English bilingualism, and to questions of Portuguese as a heritage language and the Spanish-English-Portuguese language contact.

Ivian Destro Boruchowski (BA Education, University of São Paulo; MA in Curriculum and Instruction, FIU) is pursuing her Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning at FIU. Her scholarship investigates literacy in multilingual settings and engages sociolinguistics, language policy and management, second-language acquisition, and curriculum theory. She has published profusely on heritage languages. She received the “Worlds-Ahead Student” award from FIU – for her MA thesis. In 2016, she received another award from The American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese for “the most relevant publication for Portuguese teachers in the U.S.”