Synopses:

I was born in São Paulo, Brazil. My graduate studies were done in Madrid, Spain, but I defended the dissertation at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Neo-Latin Languages (Spanish as major) where I worked for a couple of years, before moving to Rio de Janeiro. I got a second Ph.D. in Linguistics at the Universidade Federal of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). I taught at UFRJ, at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) and the PontifÌcia Universidade Católica (PUC) before coming to the United States.

My career and interest have always been in Humanities, and I have taught in a number of different areas: language and linguistics, literature and communication, and semiotics. At USP I taught Spanish language and Hispanic culture: at UFRJ and PUC my main field was Linguistics, with a specialization in Semantics and Dialectology; at UFF I taught Communication Theory with emphasis on nonverbal communication and mass communication (especially the language of television). My theoretical approach to these fields is semiotics.

I came to the United States in 1987 as a visiting professor and permanently in 1989 to teach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am currently working with Portuguese and Brazilian literature with a focus on Portuguese Women writers.