September 22 CLAS Speaker Series

David Blackmore presents “Censorship of Queer Books under the Brazilian Military Regime,” Watufani Poe presents “Adé-Dúdú: Lessons From Brazil's First Black Gay Organization.” Moderated by Daniel Balderston.

Watufani Poe is a scholar of race, gender, and sexuality throughout the Americas. His book project, tentatively titled "Resisting Fragmentation: The Embodied Politics of Black LGBTQ+ Activism in Brazil and the United States," is an ethnohistoric analysis of Black LGBTQ+ social and political activism in both countries, outlining the ways Black LGBTQ people push for freedom across various social and political movement spaces. After serving as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Amherst College, he has just joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading. 

David Blackmore is professor of English and founding co-director of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at New Jersey City University, where he teaches courses in literature, linguistics, and interdisciplinary Latin American and U.S. Latinx studies. His two primary research projects focus on queer literature under the Brazilian military regime (1964-1985) and innovative curriculum and pedagogy at federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and his most recent publications appeared in Chasqui:  Revista de literatura latinoamericana and the MLA volume Teaching the History of the English Language. During his 2022-2023 sabbatical leave, Dr. Blackmore is both a Center Affiliate at the Center for Latin American Studies at Pitt and a Visiting Scholar at the Women’s Institute at Chatham University.