PITT NAMES BRAZILIAN STUDIES PROGRAM DIRECTOR
PITTSBURGH, November 19 -- Bobby J. Chamberlain, an associate professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh, has been named director of the university's Brazilian Studies Program (BSP), announced Billie DeWalt, director of Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS).
An internationally-recognized scholar on the works of Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado and the prose fiction of Brazilian Modernism and Postmodernism, Chamberlain has more than 23 years experience teaching Portuguese language and Brazilian literature. He has served the past three years on the BSP advisory committee and has twice led the CLAS undergraduate field trip to Brazil. Since his arrival at Pitt in 1985, he has directed the university's Summer Language Training Institute in Brazilian Portuguese six times and was director of the Portuguese Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this past summer.
Chamberlain, who earned a Ph.D. in Brazilian Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles, is secretary-treasurer of the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Ibero-Americana, based in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, which publishes the Revista Iberoamericana, the oldest such journal of its kind in continuous publication. A two-time Fulbright scholar, Chamberlain has served as national chairman of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Task Force for the Promotion of Portuguese and a member of the Modern Language Association (MLA) Luso-Brazilian Division executive committee.
Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, Chamberlain taught at the University of Southern California. He lives in Bethel Park.
The BSP was founded in 1996 and inaugurated by Ruth Cardoso, the First Lady of Brazil. Since then the BSP has coordinated or assisted in a variety of programs and activities and has sponsored a number of international symposia, bringing to campus such Brazilians of note as the ambassador to the United States, Paulo Tarso Flecha; U.N. Ambassador Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim; and Senator Benita da Silva.
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11/19/99/shg
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