Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Ricardo Martins received his B.A. in English Literature in 2013 (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) and his M.A. in Lusophone Literatures in 2017 (Indiana University Bloomington). Now pursuing his PhD, his areas of interest include the literature of the XIX, XX and XX centuries, media, cinema, and videogame culture in Latin America. He is currently writing on the cultural aspects of the favelas (slums) in Brazil, and particularly in the (re)presentation of favelas in literature, cinema, and videogames. A very dedicated Latino activist, he has won numerous awards for his teaching and his service to the community, including the 2018 American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Extimo Teaching Award, the 2018 IU Latino Faculty and Staff Council Graduate Student Award, and the 2018 City of Bloomington Be More Award for his work with the Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs in the community. In 2020, Ricardo created and implemented language teaching initiatives both at IU, through LANEXPRO (Language Exchange Program), and in the city of Bloomington, through the Monroe County Library Spanish Teaching, providing teaching opportunities to grad students to teach and learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Japanese, and to individuals in the community to learn Spanish. In 2021, he was awarded the John H. Edwards Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awards at Indiana University, for his “… good citizenship, character, especially attitude toward public service and the likelihood of future usefulness to society, scholastic ability, intellectual capacity … always without regard to consideration of religion, creed, race, national origin, color, sex, or political affiliation.”