My research focuses on Portuguese and Lusophone African Literatures and Cinemas with attention to issues of historical and political transitions, cultural identity, collective memory, trauma, race, migration, diaspora, urban spaces, social and environmental justice, as well as the interconnections between literature, visual arts and sound.

My first book, Órfãos do Império. Heranças Coloniais na Literatura Portuguesa Contemporânea, explores the literary trope of the orphan in contemporary fiction that constitutes a critical revisiting of Portuguese colonialism in Africa and the consequences of the decolonization process as they relate to a renegotiation of cultural identity. The association between the orphan and the end of the colonial empire is pertinent when considering that this figure represents a rupture with notions of being, particularly home, nation, discourse, and writing.

Currently, I am working on literary and filmic analyses under the theoretical framework of sound studies. This book project (tentatively titled Modes of Listening in Lusophone Literatures and Film) posits that acoustic elements are employed in fiction and film as a means of responding to and critiquing social, political, economic and ecological crises. Among the questions I addresses are: How do sound and silence convey but also challenge patriarchal values in Lusophone fiction? How does aurality – what is heard and/or what is not heard – help us to understand blind spots of post-empire/colonial Lusophone societies? Why are sound, silence and noise key elements in narratives on memory and post-memory of the dictatorship and colonialism in the Lusophone context? What are the ontological implications of sound and silence in the works of some writers and filmmakers, as they express narrative cadences and characters’ behavior and attitudes?

I co-edited the issues “Transatlantic Voices: The Literary Atlantic in Perspective” for Cadernos de Literatura Comparada (2019) and “I Am Embedded in a History of Imposed Silences. Decolonial Luso-African Literary and Artistic Practices” for the Journal of Lusophone Studies (2023).

I am the editor of the journal Portuguese Cultural Studies and the book review editor for Pessoa Plural.

Since 2019, I have been a research member in the Inter/Transculturalities research group at the Institute for Comparative Literature Margarida Losa, University of Porto, where I co-lead the digital encyclopedia Diasporas in Portuguese.

African Literature Association

American Portuguese Studies Association

Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas

Modern Language Association

My teaching philosophy is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach that bridges literature, film, and the sensory arts to explore the cultural landscapes of the Portuguese-speaking world. Whether leading advanced graduate seminars or undergraduate concentration courses, I design my curriculum to integrate rigorous textual analysis with an engagement with the spatial, and historical dimensions of the Lusophone experience.

In my graduate seminars, I encourage students to dismantle the boundaries between theory and practice. For example, in Soundscapes, we explore how acoustic environments, from silence to noise, function as narrative devices; while in Turning Tides, we trace the literary genealogies of crisis, decolonization, and modernity. I strive to create a collaborative space where diverse viewpoints are welcomed, and where we practice the ethical responsibility of listening—both to the texts and to one another.

My undergraduate teaching I often emphasize experiential learning and local connection. In courses like Lusophone Cities through the Arts, I urge students to treat the city—specifically our local context of Providence and its vibrant Lusophone diaspora—as a living text. By mapping their own relationships to urban space alongside artistic representations of Lisbon, Luanda, or Rio de Janeiro, students ground abstract concepts in their lived reality. I offer alternatives to the traditional essay, such as video essays, urban journals, and creative rewrites, allowing students to produce knowledge through audio-visual and creative experimentation in Portuguese.