As you all know I was a little afraid about what was going to happen in Brazil. I have to say that everything went much better that I had ever dreamed it would be possible.
My first task was to teach in a seminar on Religion and Literature. I was asked to introduce students to my doctoral research. Well… I obviously sent them some readings, which they have never read: after all it was about apocalyptics… Why should they bore to do it, right? After all, as they said: “this is not our beach!”
Well, I’ve managed to survive what could have been chaos… I asked them straight to give keywords that could define “apocalypse”. It was great because they really interacted. It was possible for me to overcome all the problems of the video system due to that interaction. I’m having this problem all the time… it seems that someone jinxed my pwp presentations (it had already happened in Vienna)… I think that by the end they had a pretty good idea about how it was possible to relate apocalyptics, literature and history. But the good thing was the fact that their professor emphasized my abilities to speak and my “pedagogical” skills!
Second task, the conference paper: I was going to speak about António Vieira and the revival of apocalyptic and millennial hope during the 17th century. It was extremely good because without my knowledge, my roundtable partner ended up also speaking about him. It resulted in more than one hour of Q&A with the audience. Just great!
The best of it, in professional terms, was the fact of getting an invitation to go back next year. Besides, I got the opportunity to truly influence someone else’s work and the results were great… I went pack and comeback for the students’ presentations just to hear to the audience comments. It was great… made me feel that I could influence someone… just great! I hope to continue doing that in the future since I just loved it.
Personally it was also great: I met great people and had the opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts about my work and other persons’ work, and I think I’ve made some friendships…
Global balance: it was worth the 24h trip to get there and the 16h trip to get back!
Oh… and I am publishing with them an article!
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O que faz uma Portuguesa em Yale a estudar uma coisa que ninguém sabe o que é, e que para cúmulo, dos cúmulos, não faz parte das chamadas ciências exactas? Como explicar o fenómeno da bolsa, e como sobreviver num meio "aparentemente" hostil?
About Me
- Maria Ana T. Valdez
- Ana is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. Her research interests range from apocalyptic literature to concepts of religious tolerance in Early Modern Europe.
