Luciano Tosta, Ph.D.
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences - Spanish & PortugueseLuciano 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.
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
Selected Awards & Honors
The University of Kansas
2016
2005 - 2012
2003 - 2004
2002 - 2004
1999 - 2000
State University of New York at Buffalo
1997 - 1999
The University of Kansas Department of Spanish and Portuguese
2017 - Present