Phone
Office Location
408 Conklin Hall
175 University Ave
Newark, NJ 07102
Isadora Grevan is an Associate Professor of Brazilian and Lusophone World Studies. She received her PhD in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from Brown University in 2013. In 2015, she has spent the summer in Argentina as a part of a NEH seminar grant on Latin American theater and during the academic year of 2016-17, she has been a recipient of a Fulbright scholar award to further research on her second book project on Brazilian theater during the dictatorship. Her book on Nelson Rodrigues' theater O Fetiche como Estrutura, Imagem e Performance no Teatro de Nelson Rodrigues was published from EDUERJ (State University of Rio de Janeiro press) in 2021. Isadora has also been a contributing editor to the section on Brazilian theater for the Handbook on Latin American Studies from the Library of Congress. Isadora is currently developing a study abroad and research program in Brazil, sponsored by the Rutgers Global Grant entitled Art and Resistance.
Courses Taught
Beyond Paradise: violence, performance and love in Brazilian culture
Introduction to Brazilian Film, Redefining Marginalities
Introduction to Brazilian Literature and culture (in Translation) I and II
Introduction to Lusophone Civilization, topics on Brazilian culture and film
Soccer, Samba and Spiritualism: Performing Brazil
Redefining Marginality: Introduction to Brazilian and African Film of Portuguese Expression
Modern Latin American Theater during the Dictatorship
Postcolonial Explorations of the Afro-Luso-Brazilian Triangle
Mapping Brazilian Culture
Introduction to Latin American Studies, section on Brazil
Redefining Marginality: Introduction to Brazilian and African Film of Portuguese Expression, Spring 2016
Modern Latin American Theater during the Dictatorship, Fall 2015, Honors College, Fall, 2022
Postcolonial Explorations of the Afro-Luso-Brazilian Triangle, Spring 2015
Brazilian Sounds: Historical, Political and Literary Study of Brazilian Music, Spring 2015
Mapping Brazilian Culture, Spring 2014Introduction to Latin American Studies, section on Brazil, Fall 2013, Fall 2014
Subjects
Brazilian literature, Brazilian theater, performance studies, dramaturgy, Latin American theater, Latin American studies, Portuguese world, Lusophone African literature, Comparative Literature, gender studies, cinema
Awards
2023 Rutgers Global Grant, Art and Resistance, study abroad and research in Brazil
2016-17 Fulbright Scholar Award, PUC-Rio affiliation, research award, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2015 NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Grant Seminar Award, Buenos Aires, Argentina; “Latin American Theater Today: Aesthetics and Performance”
2015 H.H. Powers Grant, summer book research grant, Oberlin College
2014 H.H. Powers Grant, summer research grant in Brazil, Oberlin College
Education
Ph.D., Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University, 2013.
Dissertation title: Fetishism as Structure, Image and Performance in the Plays of Nelson Rodrigues.
M.A., Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University, 2011.
M.A., Comparative Literature in English and Portuguese, San Francisco State University, 2007.
B.A., Comparative Literature in English, French and Portuguese (High Honors), University of California, Berkeley, 2001.
Publications
Books
2021 O Fetiche como Estrutura, Imagem e Performance no Teatro de Nelson Rodrigues. Ed. UERJ Press, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance of Fetishism, Body Parts and Marginalities in Modern Brazilian Theater (work in progress)
Peer-reviewed articles
2018 “Revisiting Female Sexual Honor and Femininity during the Brazilian Dictatorship (1964-85) in Leilah Assunção’s Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito and Nelson Rodrigues’ Toda Nudez Será Castigada”, Latin American Research Review, 46 (91).
2016 “Reescrevendo Limites de Gênero Através de Objetos em A Cidade Sitiada”. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Vol. 92, n. 7, Liverpool Uni. Press.
2016 “Fetishism as Theatrical Device in Nelson Rodrigues’ The Seven Kittens”, Journal of Lusophone Studies, V.14.2 (2016), Stanford U.
2015 “A Retórica da Loucura em Quincas Borba”, Brasiliana-Journal for Brazilian Studies, Vol. 4, n. 1, The State and University Library Aarhus.
2013 “Liminaridade no Processo de Reconciliação de Cabo Verde em Eva de Germano Almeida”. Afro-Hispanic Review, 32.1, Vanderbilt University.
Chapter in an edited volume
2019 “The Interconnectedness between melodrama and theatricality in Almodovar’s La Piel que Habito and Nelson Rodrigues’ A Mulher sem Pecado”, in Theatricality and the Arts, ed. Richard Rushton. (submitted and accepted as part of the Theatricality and the Arts book, forthcoming)
2014 “Adriana Alves”, Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography. Editors in chief Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin K. Knight. Oxford University Press, 2014.