Jacob C.

Brown
403 Villages at Vanderbilt | Nashville, Tennessee 37212
jacob.c.brown@vanderbilt.edu | 830-739-3699
Education

Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese (certificate in Latin American Studies) Expected May 2020
Vanderbilt University. Nashville, Tennessee

M.A. in Spanish and Portuguese, with distinction 2018

Vanderbilt University. Nashville, Tennessee

B.A. in Spanish and English (minor in Race and Ethnicity Studies), summa cum laude 2014
Southwestern University. Georgetown, Texas
Study Abroad: CIEE Advanced Liberal Arts/University of Seville. Seville, Spain 2013

Dissertation

“Writing for the Silenced: Nineteenth-Century and Contemporary Slave Narratives in Latin
America”
Dr. William Luis (advisor)
Drs. Earl Fitz, Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte, and Celso Castilho (committee members)
Defense scheduled March 23, 2020)

My dissertation is on the subject of slavery and literature in the Spanish Caribbean and
Brazil. Looking at a trajectory of black authorship in both Hispanic and Portuguese America,
I examine black self-representation in literature as antislavery strategy from the nineteenth
century to the present. Whether translated for publication or originally written in English,
early “Latin American slave narratives” demonstrate close ties with abolitionism in the
Anglophone world. However, the works that I analyze also show that neither slavery nor
antislavery writing simply ended with abolition. Rather, antislavery writing evolved in
contemporary works that bear witness to slavery’s legacy of continued racial injustice.
Furthermore, these “contemporary slave narratives” (re)-construct the cultures, perspectives,
experiences, memories, and voices of the millions of Africans that were silenced by slavery in
Latin America. Therefore, I argue that the texts I analyze simultaneously challenge and reify
the umbrella-term known in African American studies as “slave narratives.” Although the
slave autobiography did not flourish in Latin America as it did in the British West Indies and
the United States, contemporary Spanish Caribbean and Brazilian literatures expand the slave
narrative to encompass a more inclusive picture of slavery in the Americas.

Honors and awards

Qualifying Exam passed with distinction, Vanderbilt University 2019

Graduate School Summer Research Grant, Vanderbilt University 2019
Center for Second Language Studies Fellowship, Vanderbilt University 2018-2019
E. Inman Fox Award for Excellence in Teaching, Vanderbilt University 2018
Center for Latin American Studies Summer Research Award, Vanderbilt University 2018
Comprehensive Exam passed with distinction, Vanderbilt University 2017
 Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) in São Paulo, Brazil 2017
Harold Sterling Vanderbilt Graduate Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement 2015
Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Vanderbilt University 2015
Outstanding Student in Spanish, Southwestern University 2014
Shearn Writing Prize in the Division of the Humanities, Southwestern University 2014
Sigma Delta Pi National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, Southwestern University 2014
Phi Beta Kappa, Southwestern University 2014

Published articles

“Undying (and Undead) Modern National Myths: Cannibalism and Racial Mixture in
Contemporary Brazilian Vampire Fiction,” Alambique: Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía
/ Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasia (refereed journal). Published July 2019. Available at:
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/alambique/vol6/iss2/4.

“Tígueres and Tígueras in Dominican National and Diasporic Culture.” Oxford Encyclopedia of
Latina/o Literature (edited by Arturo Arias, Raúl Coronado, Yolanda Martinez-San Miguel, Ben
V. Olguín, and Sandra Soto). Published August 2019. Available at:
https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-
9780190201098-e-407?rskey=LtOS8g.

“Música poética y armonía racial: la musicalidad de Nicolás Guillén y Langston Hughes.”

Furman 217 (graduate student journal). Published January 2016. Available at:
https://www.scribd.com/document/422194423/Furman-217-n1

Submitted manuscripts and future research trajectory

“Refúgios da imaginação: arte, intertextualidade e espaço em ‘Aqueles dois’, de Caio Fernando

Abreu.” Estudos de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea (refereed journal). Submitted July 2019.

“An ‘Original’ Romance: Realism, Romanticism, and Abolitionist Discourse in Úrsula, romance
original brasileiro, by Maria Firmina dos Reis.” Currently drafting for presentation in March 2019
and publication Summer 2020.

“Authorial Ambiguity and Abolitionist Discourses in the Autobiografía of Juan Francisco

Manzano and The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua” (completed seminar paper).
Currently editing for submission to peer-reviewed journal Summer 2020.

“Pardo, esclavizado, Jesucristo: Martyrdom in Juan Francisco Manzano’s Autobiografía.” (completed

seminar paper). Currently editing for submission to peer-reviewed journal Summer 2020.

“Tígueres en la imaginación española: estereotipos del macho dominicano en la España

democrática” (completed seminar paper). Currently editing for submission to peer-reviewed
journal Summer 2020.

“Bringing Conquest to Light: Sight and Blindness as Narrative Strategies in Bartolomé de Las
 Casas’s Treatises of 1552” (completed seminar paper). Potential future research direction.

National and regional refereed conference papers

“Antislavery Romance: Abolitionist and Romantic Discourse in Úrsula, by Maria Firmina dos
Reis.” (BRASA: Brazilian Studies Association Conference), University of Texas at Austin,
March 2020 (abstract accepted).

“Authorial Ambiguity and Abolitionist Discourses in the Autobiografía of Juan Francisco

Manzano and The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua” (LASA: Congress of the Latin
American Studies Association), Barcelona, Spain, May 2018.

“The Black Slave as Jesucristo: Biblical Intertextuality and Martyrdom in Juan Francisco
Manzano’s Autobiografía” (Southeastern Conference of Latin American Studies), Vanderbilt
University, April 2018.

“‘Mi afortunado celibato’: la figura del solterón urbano en ‘La lluvia de fuego’ de Leopoldo
Lugones” (Kentucky Foreign Language Conference), University of Kentucky, April 2017.

“Masculine ‘Performance’ from Novel to Film: Machado de Assis’ Memórias Póstumas de Brás
Cubas and André Klotzel’s Memórias Póstumas” (Mid America Conference on Hispanic
Literatures), University of Kansas, November 2016.

“Entre tígueres y padres ausentes: la representación estereotipada del hombre dominicano en

el cine español” (Carolina Conference on Romance Literatures), University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, April 2015.

¨Male Models: American Mass Culture and Constructions of Masculinity in Rosa Montero’s
Amado Amo.” (Carolina Conference on Romance Literatures), University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, April 2014.

Invited guest lectures and campus presentations

“Contemporary Epics: Brazilian Neo-Slave Narratives” (Symposium Da Abertura à Crise:

Contemporary Brazilian Literature and Socio-Political Change), Vanderbilt University,
October 2019 (abstract accepted).

“Representations of Slavery in the Works of Carolina Maria de Jesus” (guest lecture). Invited
by Michael LaRosa (Rhodes College), Memphis, Tennessee, April 2019.

“Carolina Maria de Jesus” (guest lecture via Skype). Invited by Marcio Bahia (University of
Notre Dame), South Bend, Indiana, November 2018.

“Family History, Slave Testimony: Memory and Slavery in the Manuscripts of Carolina Maria
de Jesus” (Center for Latin American Studies Research Roundtable), Vanderbilt University,
September 2018.
 “VU Students Discuss Study Abroad in Brazil” (presentation of research during 2017 FLAS –
São Paulo award for Latin American Studies’ “Brazil Week”), Vanderbilt University,
September 2017.

Teaching experience

Co-taught courses Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2019-2020

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Spanish American Literature Expected Spring 2020
from 1900 to the Present, with Dr. Anna Castillo
Spanish American Literature Fall 2019
from 1900 to the Present, with Dr. William Luis

Instructor of Record Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2016-2019

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Intensive Elementary Portuguese (four semesters)
Elementary Spanish II
Spanish for True Beginners

Fellow Center for Second Language Studies Fellowship 2018-2019

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Digital Language Learning Project: Say ‘Queijo!’”
Outside Cultural Participation through Instagram

Language Tutor Spanish and Portuguese 2018-2019

Center for Second Language Studies
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Course Assistant Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2017

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Course Taught: The Way of Saint James:
An Epic Trail to the Essence of Spain
Maymester Study Abroad course in Santiago de Compostela

Language Assistant Instituto de Educación Secundaria Francisco de Quevedo 2014-2015

CIEE Teach in Spain: The Basics, Madrid, Spain

Spanish Tutor Department of Modern Languages 2012-2014

Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas

Instructor Explo at Wellesley 2012, 2013, 2014

Exploration Summer Programs, Inc.,
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Courses Taught: School of Rock, Intro to Acoustic Guitar
Writing Consultant Debby Ellis Writing Center 2011-2014
Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas

Teaching Assistant Academic Internship 2011

Department of Modern Languages
Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas
Course Taught: Spanish IV

Academic service

Coordinator Bate Papo Portuguese Language Conversation Hour 2017-2019

Center for Second Language Studies
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

Co-coordinator Brazilian Studies Reading Group 2017-2019

Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Speakers Invited:
Dr. Suma Ikeuchi (Religious Studies, University of Alabama),
Dr. Jeff Lesser (History, Emory University)

Presenter Book Party, Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2019

Vanderbilt University Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Barack Obama Is Brazilian: (Re)Signifying Race Relations
in Contemporary Brazil, by Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte

Book Party, Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2016

Vanderbilt University
Machado de Assis and Female Characterization:
The Novels, by Dr. Earl Fitz

Book Party, Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2016

Vanderbilt University
Featuring Post-National Spain: Film Essays by Dr. Andrés Zamora

President Mesa de Português (Portuguese language conversation club) 2016-2017

Professional organization memberships

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA)
Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Languages

Spanish: near-native proficiency

Portuguese: near-native proficiency
English: native proficiency

Research references

Dr. William Luis

Gertrude Conway Vanderbilt Professor of Spanish
Editor, Afro-Hispanic Review
william.luis@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-6862

Earl Fitz
Professor of Portuguese, Spanish, and Comparative Literature
Affiliate Faculty, Center for Latin American Studies
earl.e.fitz@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-6861

Dr. Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte

Associate Professor of Luso-Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian Literature
Center for Latin American Studies Affiliated Faculty
emanuelle.oliveira@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-3522

Teaching references

Dr. William Luis

Gertrude Conway Vanderbilt Professor of Spanish
Editor, Afro-Hispanic Review
william.luis@vanderbilt.edu
615-322-6862

Dr. Benjamin Legg

Senior Lecturer of Portuguese
Coordinator of Intensive Elementary Portuguese 1103
benjamin.legg@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-7841

Dr. Carolina Palacios

Senior Lecturer of Spanish
Coordinator of Elementary Spanish for True Beginners 1100
Elementary Spanish 1 and 2 1101/1102
carolina.palacios@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-7840