Books by Alexander Lamazares
Cuban artists have created a new kind of revolutionary landscape that reveals startling transform... more Cuban artists have created a new kind of revolutionary landscape that reveals startling transformations in the social, political, cultural, and personal landscapes of present-day Cuba. This dissertation examines how contemporary Cuban artists have been successful agents in bringing ...
Este livro resulta do IV EMEP - IV Encontro Mundial sobre o Ensino de Português, organizado pela ... more Este livro resulta do IV EMEP - IV Encontro Mundial sobre o Ensino de Português, organizado pela AOTP - American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese. Este encontro decorreu a 7 e 8 de Agosto de 2015, na Georgetown University em Washington DC. O IV EMEP reuniu professores de Português como Língua Estrangeira, de Herança, Materna, bem como tradutores, num diálogo interdisciplinar entre todas as especialidades de ensino da língua portuguesa.
Papers, Chapters, & Articles by Alexander Lamazares
This paper looks at how Cuban aesthetics in the 1990s and 2000s discarded the socialist grotesque... more This paper looks at how Cuban aesthetics in the 1990s and 2000s discarded the socialist grotesque, and how this cultural change paralleled perestroika policies in the former Soviet Union. This culture transcends ideological rhetoric (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism, etc). Now more than ever, the arts represent a quasi-independent space that exists in constant dialogue with the State where their views of revolutionary experience are concerned. Finally, this paper assesses how artists acted as successful agents in bringing cultural change and creating a new kind of revolutionary landscape that revealed startling transformations in the social, political, cultural, and personal landscapes of post-Soviet Cuba.
This research study examines the pedagogical considerations and linguistic challenges regarding t... more This research study examines the pedagogical considerations and linguistic challenges regarding teaching Portuguese to speakers of Spanish. That the Portuguese language is similar to Spanish presents a unique set of advantages and challenges to students and instructors. The study of this population of students has grown considerably since the 1980s, and most notably since the 2000s. Two unique and growing populations of Portuguese learners come into focus during this study—both native and heritage Spanish speakers. Their specific learning goals are analyzed in detail, particularly regarding what types of innovative linguistic methods and assessment strategies are relevant for these learners.
Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City, 2017
The formation of Brazilian national identity was parallel to a modernist aesthetic – one that inf... more The formation of Brazilian national identity was parallel to a modernist aesthetic – one that informed the growth of creative cities and artistic production. In contrast to previous studies on modernism, the chapter recasts the nexus of nation building in a new light by exposing the ways contemporary street and pixação, São Paulo's unique style of tagging, respond to early and late discussions of identity, culture, and representation. As a theoretical framework, the chapter makes critical parallels between artistic and literary production, architecture, and the rhetoric of cultural cannibalism, a symbolic metaphor which permeates the discourse of Brazilian modernist thought.
This research study will examine the pedagogical considerations and linguistic challenges regardi... more This research study will examine the pedagogical considerations and linguistic challenges regarding teaching Portuguese to speakers of Spanish. That the Portuguese language is similar to Spanish presents a unique set of advantages and challenges to students and instructors. The study of this population of students has grown considerably since the 1950s and most notably since the 2000s. Two unique and growing populations of Portuguese learners will come into focus during this research—both native and heritage Spanish speakers. Their specific learning goals will be analyzed in detail, particularly regarding what types of innovative linguistic methods and assessment strategies are relevant for these learners.
As Brazil’s global position as an emerging power solidifies, the demand in diverse sectors for Po... more As Brazil’s global position as an emerging power solidifies, the demand in diverse sectors for Portuguese speakers continues to expand. Since Bronx Community College introduced Portuguese language study in 2008, several pedagogical challenges have arisen in the classroom. Curiously, almost all students that enroll in our Portuguese classes are native or heritage-Spanish speakers. It is common for many Spanish speakers to perceive the learning of Portuguese to be an easy task due to the assumed similarities in the two languages. However, Spanish fluency does not necessarily provide an advantage in the acquisition of Portuguese. The main objective of this study is to highlight, and better understand, the bi-directional language advantages and interferences posed during the language acquisition process. That Portuguese is remarkably similar to Spanish presents a unique set of advantages and challenges to students and instructors alike. This study will focus on Brazilian Portuguese, which remains the most studied dialect in the United States and the Americas, and provide an awareness of these differences, which often surprise Spanish speakers learning Portuguese, who are misled by the idea of two very similar languages. One factor, for instance, can be attributed to the difference in the number of vowels of the two languages. For many centuries, Spanish has been characterized by system of five stable vowels, whereas Portuguese has a system of twelve unstable vowels, namely vowels that change in quality. Changes in vowel quality permeate spoken Portuguese and this instability has characterized the language throughout its evolution. This project will present an overview of the subject, a summary of specific areas of grammar that can be particularly troublesome to heritage speakers of Spanish, and a review of the pedagogical challenges faced in the classroom. It will examine the considerations for those teaching Brazilian Portuguese to Spanish speakers and look at grammatical and phonetic differences between the two languages, particularly those that are identified as the area learners experience the most confusion. It will also offer theories, techniques, recommendations, and data to help identify how to maximize positive transfer of language acquisition, and minimize negative transfer of Spanish in the acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese.
This paper contributes an initial venture into thinking about the uses of urban space in the cont... more This paper contributes an initial venture into thinking about the uses of urban space in the context of leisure and contemporary urban life in São Paulo, Brazil. Looking at different urban spaces of leisure along Augusta Street, this paper analyzes the social, frenetic, and yet intimate spaces in São Paulo that were transformed and revived in the last few years. It examines Vídeo Guerrilha, an annual three-day video arts festival on Augusta Street. It also observes the revival of the neighborhood of Lower Augusta/Baixo Augusta in São Paulo, which is in progress and closer to the city center and, more specifically, the “bad” side of Avenida Paulista, the active artery that separates downtown from upscale neighborhoods in the city’s southwest zone. It focuses on visual and urban street culture along Augusta and the two parallel avenues that flank it, Bela Cintra Street and Frei Caneca Street. The urban dynamic is reflected in the city’s urban landscapes and reflects a constant tension between opposite realms: global–local, private–public, and the individual–collective.
Religion and the Arts, 2005
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Books by Alexander Lamazares
Papers, Chapters, & Articles by Alexander Lamazares