I am currently a tenured full professor at the Modern Languages Department of the University of São Paulo. I work in the fields of Foreign Languages and Literatures, focusing on language policy, literacy studies, decoloniality and interculturality. I have a BA (Hons) in Linguistics from the University of Reading (UK), an MA in Applied Linguistics from the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC), a PhD in Communication Studies and Semiotics also from the Catholic University of São Paulo, and a professorial thesis (Livre Docência) from the University of São Paulo.
D o s s i ê E s p e c i a l F I C L L A R E V I S T A X , C u r i t i b a , v o l u m e 1 4 , n . 5 , p. 05-21,, 2019
São Paulo, homenageado do primeiro FICLLA. Na conversa, que ocorreu via Skype e durou cerca de um... more São Paulo, homenageado do primeiro FICLLA. Na conversa, que ocorreu via Skype e durou cerca de uma hora, foram retomados assuntos que haviam sido discutidos por Menezes de Souza tanto no FICLLA quanto na reunião anual do Projeto Nacional de Letramentos, em São Paulo. O objetivo da entrevista foi trazer um senso de continuidade aos diálogos propostos por Menezes de Souza para as pessoas que participaram desses eventos, e ao mesmo tempo apresentar esses temas e discussões às pessoas que não tiveram a oportunidade de estar neles. Eduardo e Juliana: A primeira pergunta que a gente pensou remete ao FICLLA [Fórum Internacional de Cultura, Literatura e Linguística Aplicada], em específico sobre a tua palestra de fechamento, quando você falou do pensamento abissal. Nós lembramos que a Professora Vanessa Andreotti, nas perguntas finais, falou que tua leitura das teorias de colonialidade e decolonialidade traz aspectos que, em princípio, não foram produzidos pelos participantes dos grupos latino-americanos que fazem parte dessa discussão. Ela te cobrou que você escrevesse mais sobre esse assunto, sobre as leituras que você faz das teorias. Gostaríamos então de saber: o que você pode dizer sobre as tuas leituras dessas teorias? E de que forma a tua compreensão expande as teorias decoloniais?
InterDISCIPLINARY Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies Vol. 7 , 2018
Intentionally blurring lines between fiction, biography and autobiography, this article maybe 'na... more Intentionally blurring lines between fiction, biography and autobiography, this article maybe 'narrative' proposes a narrativized 'cultural speculation' on Goan-ness in the experience of diaspora. Dr. Roberto wasn't the kind to gaze out of the wall-to-wall glass window of his 23 rd floor contemporary designer-furnished surgery, but this afternoon something cast the middle-aged neurologist into one of his rare pensive states. In spite of his gaze, the Brazilian sun reflecting off the mirrored windows of the neighbouring buildings went unacknowledged, as did the intense hum of the afternoon traffic of metropolitan São Paulo. His gaze seemed to be focussed inwards, flipping in his mind through the case histories of his twenty-year experience as a specialist in the rehabilitation of patients who had undergone brain surgery or who had suffered strokes, and who were often debilitated by dementia and loss of memory. For the first time in his career, a patient who had undergone surgery to remove a life-threatening brain tumour faced him; moreover, soon after his surgery, this patient had suffered a massive, near lethal, haemorrhagic stroke. The neurosurgeon who operated on the patient and referred the case to Dr. Roberto had warned him that the case defied the clear-cut categories most of their colleagues were accustomed to. The patient was sent to Dr. Roberto because of his reputation of delving into the complexities of neurological cases that most of his colleagues would not touch. He was also known to question previous diagnoses of dementia and turn such cases into academic papers at international conferences where his paper sessions famously drew crowds. Now hearing the patient and his wife entering his room and politely accommodating themselves in the over-stuffed leather armchairs on the other side of his table, Dr. Roberto adjusted his glasses, sat up straight, put on his well-worn understanding smile and slowly swung his chair to face the elderly couple,
This volume bridges the gap between contemporary theoretical debates and educational policies and... more This volume bridges the gap between contemporary theoretical debates and educational policies and practices. It applies postcolonial theory as a framework of analysis that attempts to engage with and go beyond essentialism, ethno- and euro-centrisms through a critical examination of contemporary case studies and conceptual issues. From a transdisciplinary and post-colonial perspective, this book offers critiques of notions of development, progress, humanism, culture, representation, identity, and education. It also examines the implications of these critiques in terms of pedagogical approaches, social relations and possible future interventions.
Journal of multilingual theories and practices, Jan 21, 2023
This article discusses a family’s plurilingualism from a southern and decolo- nial lens, looking ... more This article discusses a family’s plurilingualism from a southern and decolo- nial lens, looking at the role of language ideologies in its plurilingual practices. It focuses on the concept of space as kshetra and its accompanying plurilingual ethos, originating in the Asian origins of the family. The overarching claim is that by holding on to its legacy of a plurilingual ethos, the family has maintained its ever-changing plurilingualism over three generations by navigating a tension or duality between an out-group assimilation to the prevalent monolingual- ism that it encounters outside the home in its transcontinental migrations and an in-group maintenance of plurilingualism within the kshetra of the family. The article concludes that it appears to be the ethical attitude to linguistic and cultural heterogeneity, rather than the actual use or maintenance of a specific heritage language, that is of more value to transnational and transgenerational plurilingual families.
O dossiê se inicia com um bate-papo entre Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza (USP) e Walkyria M... more O dossiê se inicia com um bate-papo entre Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza (USP) e Walkyria Monte Mor (USP), intitulado “É proibido proibir: Ambiguidades e Enfrentamentos na/pela Linguagem”, que traz reflexões dos autores sobre suas experiências de vida e acadêmicas e as fissuras que, ao longo de suas carreiras, foram identificando e procurando utilizar no enfrentamento das tradições e das desigualdades sociais no Brasil, valendo-se particularmente de atitudes subversivas frente aos discursos fascistas, que ora procuram reflorescer e se reinventar no país do governo Bolsonaro.
Recent accounts of language studies in Brazil have been revolving around the search for a nationa... more Recent accounts of language studies in Brazil have been revolving around the search for a national language to unite the country after 500 years of colonization, slavery and what we now term coloniality. In doing so, Brazilian sociolinguistic studies (Lucchesi 2009, 2019; Tarallo 1983; Kato & Martins 2016) have played a central role in looking for unity in the language spoken in Brazil, calling into question the diversity that characterizes the multiplicity of ways of speaking in Brazil. However, centuries of colonization and slavery in Brazil have showed otherwise. Multilingual indigenous and African communities were exterminated over the centuries and their descendants lost the nexus that would have kept alive the possibility of seeing themselves as multilingual. In this chapter we seek to perform a double objective. First, we analyze how epistemic racism emerges from the coloniality of power in Latin America, and secondly, we analyze aspects of linguistic racism and epistemic racism that in language studies undertaken in Brazil could help to engage a notion of diversity in sociolinguistics that currently ignores multiple identities in languaging in Popular Brazilian Portuguese (PBP).
Pedagogia freireana, educação linguística e linguística aplicada, 2022
Debate sobre Paulo Freire e decolonialidade entre Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza e An Lúcia Souza de... more Debate sobre Paulo Freire e decolonialidade entre Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza e An Lúcia Souza de Freitas
Os termos colonialidade, decolonialidade, descolonialidade, anticolonialidade 1 , pensamento deco... more Os termos colonialidade, decolonialidade, descolonialidade, anticolonialidade 1 , pensamento decolonial são alguns dos que têm recorrentemente circulado em publicações,
Há muito o conceito de cultura tem sido considerado essencial para o ensino e aprendizagem de lín... more Há muito o conceito de cultura tem sido considerado essencial para o ensino e aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras; porém, dificilmente é aborda-do em sua complexidade. Ademais, apesar de uma longa história de descrições e definições de cultura em várias tradições e ...
This paper proposes to critically read the multiliteracies proposal through a decolonial lens. It... more This paper proposes to critically read the multiliteracies proposal through a decolonial lens. It has two fundamental aspects: one, of an epistemic nature, refers to the need to de-link the concept from a particular hegemonic scholarship so that local knowledge production may prevent literacy practices from universalisms and methodologization; the other, of a technological nature, refers to the need to de-link the concept of multiliteracies from its apparent subjection to the digital.
Departing from the premise that decoloniality is growing in popularity within contemporary Brazil... more Departing from the premise that decoloniality is growing in popularity within contemporary Brazilian Applied Linguistics studies, this paper claims in favor of a more performative decolonial praxis so as to prevent decoloniality from universality. In doing so, the text begins with some theorizations on decolonial thought with an emphasis on the triad fundamental in any decolonial exercise, that is to Identify-Interrogate-Interrupt coloniality. The paper, then, claims in favor of thinking communication otherwise which, along with the notions of bringing back the body and marking the unmarked, constitute the necessary decolonial strategies if one wishes to interrupt coloniality. A critical examination of The falling Sky: words of a Yanomami shaman, co-authored by Kopenawa and Albert (2013), is brought to the fore as illustrative of a decolonial pedagogy which attempts to help language teacher educators and researchers to become attentive to socially-just-oriented educational agendas t...
RESUMO Com a proposta de debater o tema “Entre a heterogeneidade e a normatividade: pesquisas, po... more RESUMO Com a proposta de debater o tema “Entre a heterogeneidade e a normatividade: pesquisas, políticas e práticas educacionais em curso”, esta entrevista, conduzida junto aos professores doutores Ana Paula Duboc e Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza, ambos da Universidade de São Paulo, nos instigou ao debate sobre o conceito de normatividade transcendental, assim como as formas pelas quais ela vem se estabelecendo como regra em discursos políticos e educacionais, ensejando, desse modo, um retrocesso baseado em políticas neoconservadoras que almejam “endireitar a sociedade, por meio de políticas afeitas à ordem, ao consenso, à homogeneidade e ao universalismo”. Por outro lado, os entrevistados nos convidam a pensar que “dentro da normatividade há uma série de heterogeneidades, cada uma das quais tem a sua normatividade” e, portanto, a heterogeneidade é condição sine qua non de qualquer relação social. Esta entrevista, em forma de conversa, nos brinda com uma ampla discussão sobre linguagem...
Nessa conversa, o professor, Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza, titular da FCH/FLUSP, dialoga ... more Nessa conversa, o professor, Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza, titular da FCH/FLUSP, dialoga com xs organizadorxs do Dossiê sobre a amizade/parceria/colaboração acadêmica com a Professora Walkyria Monte Mór e sobre o Projeto Nacional de Letramentos que é um dos frutos dessa parceria. A partir de provocações baseadas em sua participação no V Encontro do Projeto Nacional de Letramentos, Lynn pensa o contexto contemporâneo e o futuro das pesquisas que se situam na interface de linguagem, sociedade e educação, abordando conceitos como lugar de fala/posição enunciativa, epistemologias da experiência, cidadania ativa, ocupação ontológica e decolonialidades, além de destacar a importância das releituras de Paulo Freire.
D o s s i ê E s p e c i a l F I C L L A R E V I S T A X , C u r i t i b a , v o l u m e 1 4 , n . 5 , p. 05-21,, 2019
São Paulo, homenageado do primeiro FICLLA. Na conversa, que ocorreu via Skype e durou cerca de um... more São Paulo, homenageado do primeiro FICLLA. Na conversa, que ocorreu via Skype e durou cerca de uma hora, foram retomados assuntos que haviam sido discutidos por Menezes de Souza tanto no FICLLA quanto na reunião anual do Projeto Nacional de Letramentos, em São Paulo. O objetivo da entrevista foi trazer um senso de continuidade aos diálogos propostos por Menezes de Souza para as pessoas que participaram desses eventos, e ao mesmo tempo apresentar esses temas e discussões às pessoas que não tiveram a oportunidade de estar neles. Eduardo e Juliana: A primeira pergunta que a gente pensou remete ao FICLLA [Fórum Internacional de Cultura, Literatura e Linguística Aplicada], em específico sobre a tua palestra de fechamento, quando você falou do pensamento abissal. Nós lembramos que a Professora Vanessa Andreotti, nas perguntas finais, falou que tua leitura das teorias de colonialidade e decolonialidade traz aspectos que, em princípio, não foram produzidos pelos participantes dos grupos latino-americanos que fazem parte dessa discussão. Ela te cobrou que você escrevesse mais sobre esse assunto, sobre as leituras que você faz das teorias. Gostaríamos então de saber: o que você pode dizer sobre as tuas leituras dessas teorias? E de que forma a tua compreensão expande as teorias decoloniais?
InterDISCIPLINARY Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies Vol. 7 , 2018
Intentionally blurring lines between fiction, biography and autobiography, this article maybe 'na... more Intentionally blurring lines between fiction, biography and autobiography, this article maybe 'narrative' proposes a narrativized 'cultural speculation' on Goan-ness in the experience of diaspora. Dr. Roberto wasn't the kind to gaze out of the wall-to-wall glass window of his 23 rd floor contemporary designer-furnished surgery, but this afternoon something cast the middle-aged neurologist into one of his rare pensive states. In spite of his gaze, the Brazilian sun reflecting off the mirrored windows of the neighbouring buildings went unacknowledged, as did the intense hum of the afternoon traffic of metropolitan São Paulo. His gaze seemed to be focussed inwards, flipping in his mind through the case histories of his twenty-year experience as a specialist in the rehabilitation of patients who had undergone brain surgery or who had suffered strokes, and who were often debilitated by dementia and loss of memory. For the first time in his career, a patient who had undergone surgery to remove a life-threatening brain tumour faced him; moreover, soon after his surgery, this patient had suffered a massive, near lethal, haemorrhagic stroke. The neurosurgeon who operated on the patient and referred the case to Dr. Roberto had warned him that the case defied the clear-cut categories most of their colleagues were accustomed to. The patient was sent to Dr. Roberto because of his reputation of delving into the complexities of neurological cases that most of his colleagues would not touch. He was also known to question previous diagnoses of dementia and turn such cases into academic papers at international conferences where his paper sessions famously drew crowds. Now hearing the patient and his wife entering his room and politely accommodating themselves in the over-stuffed leather armchairs on the other side of his table, Dr. Roberto adjusted his glasses, sat up straight, put on his well-worn understanding smile and slowly swung his chair to face the elderly couple,
This volume bridges the gap between contemporary theoretical debates and educational policies and... more This volume bridges the gap between contemporary theoretical debates and educational policies and practices. It applies postcolonial theory as a framework of analysis that attempts to engage with and go beyond essentialism, ethno- and euro-centrisms through a critical examination of contemporary case studies and conceptual issues. From a transdisciplinary and post-colonial perspective, this book offers critiques of notions of development, progress, humanism, culture, representation, identity, and education. It also examines the implications of these critiques in terms of pedagogical approaches, social relations and possible future interventions.
Journal of multilingual theories and practices, Jan 21, 2023
This article discusses a family’s plurilingualism from a southern and decolo- nial lens, looking ... more This article discusses a family’s plurilingualism from a southern and decolo- nial lens, looking at the role of language ideologies in its plurilingual practices. It focuses on the concept of space as kshetra and its accompanying plurilingual ethos, originating in the Asian origins of the family. The overarching claim is that by holding on to its legacy of a plurilingual ethos, the family has maintained its ever-changing plurilingualism over three generations by navigating a tension or duality between an out-group assimilation to the prevalent monolingual- ism that it encounters outside the home in its transcontinental migrations and an in-group maintenance of plurilingualism within the kshetra of the family. The article concludes that it appears to be the ethical attitude to linguistic and cultural heterogeneity, rather than the actual use or maintenance of a specific heritage language, that is of more value to transnational and transgenerational plurilingual families.
O dossiê se inicia com um bate-papo entre Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza (USP) e Walkyria M... more O dossiê se inicia com um bate-papo entre Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza (USP) e Walkyria Monte Mor (USP), intitulado “É proibido proibir: Ambiguidades e Enfrentamentos na/pela Linguagem”, que traz reflexões dos autores sobre suas experiências de vida e acadêmicas e as fissuras que, ao longo de suas carreiras, foram identificando e procurando utilizar no enfrentamento das tradições e das desigualdades sociais no Brasil, valendo-se particularmente de atitudes subversivas frente aos discursos fascistas, que ora procuram reflorescer e se reinventar no país do governo Bolsonaro.
Recent accounts of language studies in Brazil have been revolving around the search for a nationa... more Recent accounts of language studies in Brazil have been revolving around the search for a national language to unite the country after 500 years of colonization, slavery and what we now term coloniality. In doing so, Brazilian sociolinguistic studies (Lucchesi 2009, 2019; Tarallo 1983; Kato & Martins 2016) have played a central role in looking for unity in the language spoken in Brazil, calling into question the diversity that characterizes the multiplicity of ways of speaking in Brazil. However, centuries of colonization and slavery in Brazil have showed otherwise. Multilingual indigenous and African communities were exterminated over the centuries and their descendants lost the nexus that would have kept alive the possibility of seeing themselves as multilingual. In this chapter we seek to perform a double objective. First, we analyze how epistemic racism emerges from the coloniality of power in Latin America, and secondly, we analyze aspects of linguistic racism and epistemic racism that in language studies undertaken in Brazil could help to engage a notion of diversity in sociolinguistics that currently ignores multiple identities in languaging in Popular Brazilian Portuguese (PBP).
Pedagogia freireana, educação linguística e linguística aplicada, 2022
Debate sobre Paulo Freire e decolonialidade entre Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza e An Lúcia Souza de... more Debate sobre Paulo Freire e decolonialidade entre Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza e An Lúcia Souza de Freitas
Os termos colonialidade, decolonialidade, descolonialidade, anticolonialidade 1 , pensamento deco... more Os termos colonialidade, decolonialidade, descolonialidade, anticolonialidade 1 , pensamento decolonial são alguns dos que têm recorrentemente circulado em publicações,
Há muito o conceito de cultura tem sido considerado essencial para o ensino e aprendizagem de lín... more Há muito o conceito de cultura tem sido considerado essencial para o ensino e aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras; porém, dificilmente é aborda-do em sua complexidade. Ademais, apesar de uma longa história de descrições e definições de cultura em várias tradições e ...
This paper proposes to critically read the multiliteracies proposal through a decolonial lens. It... more This paper proposes to critically read the multiliteracies proposal through a decolonial lens. It has two fundamental aspects: one, of an epistemic nature, refers to the need to de-link the concept from a particular hegemonic scholarship so that local knowledge production may prevent literacy practices from universalisms and methodologization; the other, of a technological nature, refers to the need to de-link the concept of multiliteracies from its apparent subjection to the digital.
Departing from the premise that decoloniality is growing in popularity within contemporary Brazil... more Departing from the premise that decoloniality is growing in popularity within contemporary Brazilian Applied Linguistics studies, this paper claims in favor of a more performative decolonial praxis so as to prevent decoloniality from universality. In doing so, the text begins with some theorizations on decolonial thought with an emphasis on the triad fundamental in any decolonial exercise, that is to Identify-Interrogate-Interrupt coloniality. The paper, then, claims in favor of thinking communication otherwise which, along with the notions of bringing back the body and marking the unmarked, constitute the necessary decolonial strategies if one wishes to interrupt coloniality. A critical examination of The falling Sky: words of a Yanomami shaman, co-authored by Kopenawa and Albert (2013), is brought to the fore as illustrative of a decolonial pedagogy which attempts to help language teacher educators and researchers to become attentive to socially-just-oriented educational agendas t...
RESUMO Com a proposta de debater o tema “Entre a heterogeneidade e a normatividade: pesquisas, po... more RESUMO Com a proposta de debater o tema “Entre a heterogeneidade e a normatividade: pesquisas, políticas e práticas educacionais em curso”, esta entrevista, conduzida junto aos professores doutores Ana Paula Duboc e Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza, ambos da Universidade de São Paulo, nos instigou ao debate sobre o conceito de normatividade transcendental, assim como as formas pelas quais ela vem se estabelecendo como regra em discursos políticos e educacionais, ensejando, desse modo, um retrocesso baseado em políticas neoconservadoras que almejam “endireitar a sociedade, por meio de políticas afeitas à ordem, ao consenso, à homogeneidade e ao universalismo”. Por outro lado, os entrevistados nos convidam a pensar que “dentro da normatividade há uma série de heterogeneidades, cada uma das quais tem a sua normatividade” e, portanto, a heterogeneidade é condição sine qua non de qualquer relação social. Esta entrevista, em forma de conversa, nos brinda com uma ampla discussão sobre linguagem...
Nessa conversa, o professor, Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza, titular da FCH/FLUSP, dialoga ... more Nessa conversa, o professor, Lynn Mario Trindade Menezes de Souza, titular da FCH/FLUSP, dialoga com xs organizadorxs do Dossiê sobre a amizade/parceria/colaboração acadêmica com a Professora Walkyria Monte Mór e sobre o Projeto Nacional de Letramentos que é um dos frutos dessa parceria. A partir de provocações baseadas em sua participação no V Encontro do Projeto Nacional de Letramentos, Lynn pensa o contexto contemporâneo e o futuro das pesquisas que se situam na interface de linguagem, sociedade e educação, abordando conceitos como lugar de fala/posição enunciativa, epistemologias da experiência, cidadania ativa, ocupação ontológica e decolonialidades, além de destacar a importância das releituras de Paulo Freire.
International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning
This paper reflects on the lessons learned in the design and development process of the project T... more This paper reflects on the lessons learned in the design and development process of the project Through Other Eyes (TOE). It explores the justification and theoretical framework of TOE in the context of development education and global learning by outlining some of the challenges and tensions of translating postcolonial theory into pedagogical practice and of negotiating complex issues of language, representation and ownership in a context of North-South dialogue.
Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research, 2019
Decolonial pedagogical possibilities: identifying, interrogating and interrupting coloniality
Tal... more Decolonial pedagogical possibilities: identifying, interrogating and interrupting coloniality Talk given at the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa 2019 at the invitation of Prof. Christopher Stroud and Prof. Zannie Bock
(Video a partir de 1:25:08)
Discute aspectos problemáticos de possíveis "aplicações" das teorias... more (Video a partir de 1:25:08)
Discute aspectos problemáticos de possíveis "aplicações" das teorias descolonizais.
https://www.youtube.com/live/UkwfFona7-A?feature=share
Penn State African Studies Global Virtual Forum: Decoloniality and Southern Epistemologies-Lynn M... more Penn State African Studies Global Virtual Forum: Decoloniality and Southern Epistemologies-Lynn Mario de Souza
https://youtu.be/xwx5Ppc5oOc
Knowledges of the south, and their attendant languages, are terms that have become increasingly c... more Knowledges of the south, and their attendant languages, are terms that have become increasingly common in recent decolonial theories and seem to refer to a blossoming focus on the contextualized local as opposed to a decontextualized, abstract universal, commonly associated with colonial epistemologies and practices of knowledgeproduction. However, the terrain may not be as straightforward and devoid of pitfalls as it may appear.
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Talk given at the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa 2019 at the invitation of Prof. Christopher Stroud and Prof. Zannie Bock
Discute aspectos problemáticos de possíveis "aplicações" das teorias descolonizais.
https://www.youtube.com/live/UkwfFona7-A?feature=share
https://youtu.be/xwx5Ppc5oOc