Sophia ("Sophie") Beal
Email Address: Sophia_beal@brown.edu
Office Phone Number: 401-863-3411
Hometown: Essex, Massachusetts
Education Background: B.A. Columbia University (Major: Comparative Literature) Junior Year Abroad: PUC-Rio de Janeiro, M.A. Brown University (Portuguese and Brazilian Studies).
Research Interests: Citizenship, Public Spaces, Electricity, Public Utilities, Urban Literature, Brazilian prose, Mozambican prose, Machado de Assis, João do Rio, Mia Couto, Bernardo Carvalho.
Dissertation (in progress): “Infrastructure in Brazilian Fiction: Competing Notions of Progress in the Twentieth Century”
Director: Nelson H. Vieira
Readers: James Green and Anani Dzidzienyo
Publications:
"Terra Sonâmbula and the Naparama: Reconstructing a Nation." In Magical Practices, Witchcraft and Warfare in the African Continent (XIX-XX Century), Mellen Press, Lampeter, Wales, UK, Ed. Beatrice Nicolini. March 2006: 227-237.
"Becoming a Character: An Analysis of Bernardo Carvalho's Nove Noites." Luso-Brazilian Review 42.2 (2005): 134-149.
"O Jogo das Reinvenções: Uma Entrevista com Mia Couto." Storm Magazine 22 (March/April. 2005): 111-114.
"Uma entrevista com Bernardo Carvalho." Brasil/ Brazil: A Journal of Brazilian Literature 32 (2004).
Conference Papers:
"A Poesia Ativa: A Incorporação de Poemas no Ensino de Língua Portuguesa." IX Brazilian Studies Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 27-29, 2008.
"Electric Rio: Access to the Power Grid in Brazilian Literature." Modern Language Association, Chicago, IL. December 27-30, 2007.
"Power on the World's Longest Bridge: Personalizing Infrastructure in a Domingos Pellegrini Story." Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Graduate Student Conference, Brown University. April 20, 2007.
"A Tradição Oral na Obra de Mia Couto." Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA. December 27-30, 2006.
"Reconstructing Mozambique with Stories in Mia Couto's Novel Terra Sonâmbula." African Studies Association, San Francisco. November 16-19, 2006.
Chair of Panel "Women and Bodies;" presented "Delicate Exploit: Sexual Safety in Sérgio Sant'Anna's Novel Um Crime Delicado." Brazilian Studies Association, Vanderbilt University. October 13-16, 2006.
"Being Represented: Storytelling and Disempowerment in stories by Mozambican Authors Mia Couto and Luís Bernardo Honwana." III International Conference on Transatlantic Studies, Brown University. April 2006.
"Stereotypes in Paulina Chiziane's Niketche." Modern Language Association, Washington DC. December 27-30, 2005.
"Abandonment: Invented Domestic Violence in the Fiction of Mia Couto." African Studies Association, Washington DC. November 2005.
Courses Taught at Brown: POBS 100-200, POBS 110, POBS 400
