Leonora Souza Paula
paulaleo@msu.edu
517-884-4458
C706 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyEnglishGlobal Studies in Arts and Humanities
Assistant Professor
Literary Studies; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Race and Ethnic Studies; Global and Diasporic Studies
Biography
Leonora Souza Paula specializes in Literary Studies and Latin American Studies, with a focus on intersections of race, gender, urban culture, and memory in contemporary Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Diasporic culture. Her current research examines the role of Black spatial imagination in the process of claiming literature and culture as a form of heritage recovery and epistemic reparation.
An American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellow and public humanities scholar, Dr. Paula is a co-leader at the Kilomba Collective of Black Brazilian Women in the US and is the co-founder of the Sister Circle Mentoring Program for Women of Color.
Media Mentions
Research Recognized for Highlighting Black Women’s Contributions to History and Culture
Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters
March 21, 2024
International Advocacy for Racial Equity an Intrinsic Part of Professor’s Research and Teaching
Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters
December 19, 2023
MSU Professor invited to participate in UN’s Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and meeting with Brazilian Minister of Racial Equity
Michigan State University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
December 4, 2023
Race Conference’s hybrid format is a success
Michigan State University James Madison College
May 24, 2022
Awards and Honors
Inspiration Award for Community Engagement, Center for Gender in Global Context
Michigan State University
2024
Sister Circle Mentoring Program Expansion. Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant. Institutional Diversity and Inclusion
Michigan State University
2022
Young Women Transnational Feminisms Mentorship Program. Diverse Black Africa Grant. Alliance for African Partnership
Michigan State University
2022
American Council of Learned Societies Fellow
2021
Anti-Racist Pedagogies and Policies in Education in Brazil and the US. Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant. Institutional Diversity and Inclusion
Michigan State University
2021
Black Struggles for Racial Justice in the Americas. Year of Global Africa Grant. Alliance for African Partnership
Michigan State University
2018
Sister Circle Mentoring Program. Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant. Institutional Diversity and Inclusion
Michigan State University
2018
Exemplary Diversity Scholar Award, National Center for Institutional Diversity
University of Michigan
2015
Human Rights Center Fellowship
The Human Rights Center at the University of California Berkeley
2012
Publications
“Um gesto de afronta.” Afterword in Quantas Tantas. Mel Adún. Salvador: Ogum’s Toques, p.137-146. 2021
“Afro-Ancestralidade and the Construction of Urban Memory in Conceição Evaristo’s Becos da Memória.” Brasil/Brazil Journal of Brazilian Literature. N. 63, Vol. 33, p.194-210. 2020
“Pixação and the Production of Spatial Justice by the Urban Excluded.” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies. Vol. 22, p. 151-163. 2018
“Pixação in São Paulo: Subverting the Lettered City.” In: Tambling J. (ed.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2018
“Literatura Periférica: Challenging São Paulo’s Cultural Segregation.” The International Journal of the Constructed Environment. Vol. 7 Issue 2:13-24. 2016
“Cultural Responses to Urban Violence in 21st Century Brazil: New Writers Speak from the Margins.” Hispanófila. 178.1: 67-79. 2016
“Crisis and Revolution: Activist Art in Neoliberal Buenos Aires.” Imprints of Revolution: Visual Representations of Resistance. Lisa Calvente and Guadalupe García (eds.) London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2016
“eles eram muitos cavalos: Challenging the Regulating Fiction of the Global City.” Romance Notes. 54.1: 95-102. 2014
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