Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

“Compadres De Los Suburbios”: Hip-Hop Counterculture In The Andean Sprawl Of El Alto, Matthew Harrison, Brian Pierce

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For as long as we have recognized the existence of music, it has been inevitably and profoundly representative of our world’s many diverse cultures. By chance, just the other week I had the opportunity to chat with some family members about the origins of modern hip-hop music in the United States; it was fascinating to not only agree upon some wide-spread fundamental influences such as the classic rhythm and blues of Ray Charles and the boundary-pushing synth tunes of Kraftwerk, but also to recognize that while pulling from these influences, modern hip-hop has become something entirely of its own. The …

Muito Como Um Rei: Afro-Brazilian Need For Educational Role Models, Grundvig Angela, Rex Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This research project attempts to engage in a new verbal dialogue in the field of research about Afro-Brazilian masculinity and educational systems through the lens of literature. The novel Muito Como Um Rei (2015) is a recently published novel by the Afro-Brazilian writer Fábio Mandingo that provides an interesting view of Afro-Brazilian heterosexual culture.

Interpreting Art History By Brazillian Modernist Anuta Malfatti, Michelle Turner, Rex Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project is centered around the artist Anita Malfatti and her teaching of art history. Malfatti was an instrumental figure in the development of Brazilian Modernism. Leaving an oeuvre composed primarily of portraits and landscapes, the majority of critics and scholars have been dedicated to recognizing interactions Malfatti had with artists in Germany and New York. She continued to paint and depict Brazilian life throughout her life but also was a teacher of art and art history.

Her lectures still exist in notebooks, though under-researched and unpublished. The main goal of this research was to access her archive, then transcribe …

Trash And Contemporary Brazil: Modernization And Consumption In Brazil’S Megacities, Asa Richards Laws, Dr. Rex Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the past 50 years the growing difference between trash collection capacity and consumption has produced new cultural developments concerning the collection, reuse, and criminalization of trash in Brazil. The thin legal framework that surrounds lixões [pronounced li-¢òõẽs] (open air garbage dumps) in Brazil has, in many ways, resulted in the rise of public trash and recycling collection in lixões that can be found in Brazilian megacities. According to my research, few statutes in either Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo exist to govern the treatment of trash collection by marginalized populations living near or on lixões. What laws that …

The Failure Of A Latin American Bestseller: Researching The Reception Of João Guimarães Rosa In The United States, Andrew Kelly Nelson, James Krause

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Of all Latin American authors, the works of João Guimarães Rosa present some of the greatest difficulties for translators. He experienced laudable critical success throughout Latin American and Europe, but–for reasons that are under investigation–received a tepid reception in the United States. This project was developed to examine the extent to which the translation and editorial processes played in this poor reception by the US readership by examining the extensive communication that the author maintained with the translator of his work. Such correspondence is unique in that it documents the collaborative translation process between the author and his English-language translator, …

Comparison Of Language Gains Across Classroom, Foreign Language Housing, And Study Abroad Environments, Kari Tanner, Dr. Jeffrey Turley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When it comes to learning a foreign language, study abroad contexts have generally been assumed to produce the best results. However, with rising program costs it becomes necessary to evaluate alternate options as well. The three main language learning contexts are classroom, foreign language housing (domestic immersion) and study abroad. While many studies have analyzed language gains in these settings independently of each other, little research has actually compared the gains across these three environments. I chose to conduct this research with learners of Italian, so I started by finding participants in each of the three contexts. The classroom learners …