Luciano Tosta, Ph.D.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures - Department of Spanish & PortugueseRoom 2630
Luciano Tosta has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, and Master's degrees in Comparative Literature and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from Brown University. Dr. Tosta also has a Master's degree in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was a Fulbright scholar. Prof. Tosta did his undergraduate studies at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, where he earned a Bachelor degree and a Licenciatura in English. Before joining the faculty at the University of Kansas, he taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his graduate studies at Brown, Dr. Tosta taught at Harvard University, Boston University, and Rhode Island College. He received Harvard University's Certificate of Distinction and Excellence in Teaching, and featured on the University of Illinois's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent. He was awarded the University of Kansas Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2016-2017 Jessie Marie Senor Cramer and Ann Cramer Root Faculty Award in recognition of meritorious teaching and research. In Brazil, he taught at the Federal and State Universities of Bahia.
His publications on Brazilian and Brazilian-American literature, film, and music have appeared in several journals and as book chapters in the United States, Brazil, Canada, and England. Journals include Afro-Hispanic Review, Revista Iberoamericana, Luso-Brazilian Review, Letras de Hoje, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, Chasqui, Romance Notes, Gávea-Brown, Estudos Portugueses e Africanos, and Hispania. Dr. Tosta also co-edited the Luso-American Literature: Writings by Portuguese-speaking Authors in North America (Rutgers UP, 2011) and Brazil (ABC/CLIO, 2016). His book Confluence Narratives: Ethnicity, History, and Nation Making in the Americas was published with Bucknell University Press in 2016. It won the 2016 Vice Chancellor for Research Book Publication Award at the University of Kansas. He is currently working on a second book manuscript tentatively entitled Brazilian American Literature and U.S. Brazilian Literature: Transamerican Politics, Postcolonial Readings.
Education
Ph.D., Comparative Literature, Brown University
M.A., Comparative Literature, Brown University
M.A., Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University
M.A., Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Buffalo
Graduate Diploma, Higher Education Methodology, Faculdade de Educação da Bahia
Licenciatura, English (undergraduate degree with emphasis on teaching) , Universidade Federal da Bahia
B.A., English (Letras), Universidade Federal da Bahia
Teaching
My teaching interests include 19th and 20th Century Brazilian literature, Brazilian culture (especially cinema and music), the ethnic literatures and cultures of the Americas (particularly Afro-Brazilian, African American, and Afro Latin American, Brazilian-American, and Latina/o), Contemporary Portuguese Literature, and literary and critical theory.
Teaching Interests
- 19th and 20th century Brazilian literature
- Brazilian-American literature
- Contemporary Portuguese literature
- Ethnic literatures of the Americas.
Research
My current research is in the field of hemispheric American studies. I am particularly interested in Brazil's transnational movements in fiction and art in general. The study of the nation, its definitions and configurations, movements, and spaces, are at the core of my work. My research is theoretically grounded on the fields of postcolonial, ethnic, and subaltern studies. Other areas on which I have focused my work are the relationship between fiction and history, the study of representations of the city in literature and film, and the sublime.
Research Interests
- Brazilian literature, music, and cinema
- Inter-American literature
- Transnational studies
- The nation
- Ethnic literatures and cultures of the Americas (particularly Afro-Brazilian, African American, and Afro Latin American, Brazilian-American, and Latina/o)
- Postcolonial literatures
- Fiction and history
- The sublime.
Selected Publications
Tosta, A. (2017). Milton Hatoum: Interweaving the Local and the Global. In , Critical Insights-Latin American Fiction (pp. 134-149). Hackensack: Salem University Press.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2016). Confluence Narratives: Ethnicity, History, and Nation-Making in the Americas, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.
Tosta, A. (2016). Immigration, Transnationalism, and Transmigration in Grandma Has a Video Camera. Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, 1(1), 74-92.
Tosta, A. L., & Coutinho, E. F. (2015). Brazil - Latin America in Focus, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC - CLIO / Greenwood (Publisher).
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2013). Fictional and Everyday Violence: Brazilian Audience as an Interpretive Community of Brazilian Cinema. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies,(38/1), 17-34.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2012). The Other as Self or Other? "Latinidade" and the Politics of Identification in Brazuca Novels. Gávea-Brown, XXXIV-XXXV(2012-2013), 301-322.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L., & Moser, R. H. (2011). Luso-American Literature: Writings by Portuguese-speaking Authors in North America, Rutgers University Press.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2011). Lyrics and Voice: Resistance and Citizenship in the Songs of Ilê Aiyê and Olodum. Afro-Hispanic Review , 29(2), 175-94.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2011). Modern and Postcolonial? Oswald de Andrade’s Antropofagia and the Politics of Labeling. Romance Notes, 51(2), 217-26.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2009). Scribere Est Agere ou O Direito ao Grito: O Intelectual Oprimido e a Hora do Subalterno em A Hora da Estrela. Revista Iberoamericana., 75(226), 243-260.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L., Caulfield, C. & Davis, D. (2007). American Dream, Jeitinho Brasileiro: On the Crossroads of Cultural Identities in Brazilian-American Literature. In , Companion to Latino Literature in the United States (pp. 140-157). London: Boydell & Brewer.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L., Mazzotti, J. A., & Falconi, J. L. (2007). Is there a Brazilian-American Cinema? Aesthetics and Identity in A Fronteira and Nailed. In , The Other Latinos: Central and South Americans in the United States (pp. 257-284). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L., Ortiz Camargo, G. & Denófrio, D. (2006). Uma In(ter)venção da Memória: A Universalização do Particular na Poesia Histórica de Cora Coralina. In , Cora Coralina: Celebração da Volta (pp. 15-35). Goiânia: Cânone.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2005). Between Heaven and Hell: Perceptions of Brazil and the United States in Brazuca Literature. HISPANIA , 88(4), 713-725.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L., Mota, K. & Scheyerl, D. (2004). Além de Textos e Contextos: Língua Estrangeira, Poesia e Consciência Cultural Crítica. (pp. 107-41). Salvador: EDUFBA (Federal University of Bahia Press).
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2004). Latino, Eu? The Paradoxical Interplay of Identity in Brazuca Literature. HISPANIA, 87(3), 576-585.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2004). Machado de Assis: A Obra Entreaberta. Luso-Brazilian Review, 41(1), 37-55.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2003). Exchanging Glances: The Streetcar, Modernity, and the Metropolis in Brazilian Literature. Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana, 32(2), 35-52.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2003). Murmúrios textuais, históricos e pósmodernos em A costa dos murmúrios. EPA. Estudos Portugueses e Africanos, 41, 71-87.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2001). Laugh and Learn: Thinking Over the Funny Teacher Myth. English Teaching Forum, 39(1), 26-29.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (2001). O ‘Sublime’ Sertão em O Sertanejo, Os Sertões e Grande Sertão: Veredas. Letras de Hoje, 36(1), 7-26.
de Andrade Tosta, A. L. (1996). Poetry? It’s Worth a Try! English Teaching Forum, 34(3-4), 62-63.
Selected Awards & Honors
2016-2017 Jessie Marie Senor Cramer and Ann Cramer Root Faculty Award
The University of Kansas Department of Spanish and Portuguese
2017 - Present
Vice Chancellor for Research Book Publication Award
The University of Kansas
2016
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent
2005 - 2012
Brown University Joukovsky Dissertation Fellowship
2003 - 2004
Harvard University Certificate of Distinction and Excellence in Teaching
2002 - 2004
Brown University Fellowship
1999 - 2000
Fulbright Fellowship
State University of New York at Buffalo
1997 - 1999
