Biography

Carolina Timóteo de Oliveira completed her undergraduate degree in English at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. While working on her undergraduate degree, Carolina developed research on new literacy and critical literacy in English language textbooks. She worked for seven years as a Portuguese and English teacher before completing her master’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her master’s thesis entitled “Afro-Brazilian Culture as a Means of Transformation: Spaces, Business and Political Participation in Belo Horizonte, Brazil” investigates how Brazilian hip-hop can challenge social patterns and build new realities. At UNC Charlotte, Carolina taught Portuguese as a Foreign Language and Afro-Brazilian History and Culture courses to undergraduate students. In addition, Carolina participated in ethnographic research on social and racial dynamics in a gentrifying community in Charlotte, North Carolina. Carolina is currently pursuing a PhD in Latin American studies at Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University and is part of the Mellon Graduate Program in Community Engaged Scholarship. Carolina is developing a project on identities, therapeutic resources, and empowerment strategies with the Afro-LGBT+ population in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In addition, Carolina is conducting research with an ethnomusicological approach on the relationship between Candomblé and Afro-Brazilian art, the dynamics between Afro-diasporic rhythms, identity constructions, and notions of citizenship.