Where did you work at Freie Universität?

I was at Freie Universität from March 2013 to March 2014 for a research stay at the Institute for Latin American Studies.

What is your current profession?

I am Professor at Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) in Brazil.

What is your favorite place at Freie Universität?

The Forschungszentrum Brasilien at the Lateinamerika-Institut.

Why is this place at Freie Universität special to you?

The Forschungszentrum Brasilien is an interdisciplinary center focused on projects and research activities with a cultural and social science orientation, whose common perspective is Brazil in a global context. It is my dearest place in my favorite University in the best city in the world.

How has Freie Universität changed you?

The experience of otherness matured me as a researcher and as a person. It was my first experience living as a foreigner in a different culture and language.

What have you changed at Freie Universität/in the world/...)?

I introduced Brazilian literature and writers like Machado de Assis to colleagues and professors who had never read books from Brazil. I bought German and English translations of books by Machado de Assis and gave them as gifts.

How do you think the university/teaching and learning spaces/students/learning will change in the future?

Universities are already slowly shifting to online activities. But I think that the face-to-face experience on campus is indispensable for an excellent human and academic formation: a “Bildung” in the philosophical sense.