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Amazon indigenous tribes expert to speak at WCSU

Image of poster for Indigenous Tribes lectureDANBURY, CONN.— The Western Connecticut State University departments of World Languages and Literature (WLL), History and Social Sciences will host Dr. Alvaro Fernando Rodrigues-da-Cunha for a discussion about “Indigenous Tribes and Languages of the Amazon Rainforest” at 1:40 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017, in the Student Center Theater on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The talk will be free and the public is invited.

Rodrigues-da-Cunha lived in the Amazon rainforest for four years studying the indigenous groups of Wayway, Puyanawa, Suya, Kapon, Kanoe and Guajajara. He received a master’s and doctoral degree from the University of São Paulo, followed by post-doctoral training at the State University of Campinas. Rodrigues-da-Cunha is an anthropologist-linguist researcher whose focus is on the analysis of the Theory of Crossover in Orality and Literacy, a theory he developed. Rodrigues-da-Cunha described, analyzed and documented the language of the Tenehara indigenous people, from the western Amazon region; the language of the Kalo gypsy group, from the basket-making clan in the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais; and the Moroccan-Jews who live in the Amazon rainforest in the areas of Brazil and Venezuela. Rodrigues-da-Cunha is also currently an instructor of Portuguese at WCSU.

This lecture is part of a series to be presented this semester by the university’s WLL department. Department Chairperson Dr. Galina Bakhtiarova said, “The Department of World Languages and Literature, together with other departments on campus, strives to bring culture and diversity to WCSU. We want to create opportunities for our students to view the world from diverse perspectives; that’s why we believe that a series of events presented by our excellent, dedicated faculty will be a valuable asset to the university community.”

For more information, contact Bakhtiarova at bakhtiarg@wcsu.edu.

 

 

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