Summary
Carolyn S. F. Silva, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in the elementary education program. Silva’s critical and justice-oriented scholarship speaks to the foundations of race, ethnicity, and diversity across educational contexts. More specifically, her research examines 1) the educational experiences of Latinx and AfroLatinx groups; 2) transnational policies, discourses, curriculum, and practices in education, and 3) critical approaches to social studies in teacher education.
Dr. Silva’s interdisciplinary approach to educational research is grounded in hemispheric, diasporic, intersectional and decolonial frameworks that promote dialogues between racialized experiences of colonialism and decolonization in education. Her research interests often appear in leading academic journals, such as the Educational Researcher, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal and Women’s Studies Quarterly. She has co-authored a chapter on Black gendered education and social mobilization for the Handbook on Teaching Social Issues. Currently, Dr. Silva is working on a book manuscript focused on the history and educational experiences of AfroBrazilians in the United States.
Before joining the Wolf Pack, Dr. Silva spent more than a decade teaching social studies and history to elementary and secondary students in Brazil. During her years as a teacher and scholar in Latin America, Silva had the opportunity to engage with culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students and collaborate with local organizers, educators, and parents in community-based initiatives rooted in anti-colonial and abolitionist education.
Education:
- Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Florida, 2022
- M.A., Political History, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (State University of Rio de Janeiro), 2016
- B.A., History, Universidade do Grande Rio (Grand River University), RJ, Brazil, 2010
Professional experience:
- 2022-present: Assistant Professor, College of Education and Human Development, University of Nevada Reno.
- 2020-2021: Research Assistant, School of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida
- 2018-2022: Instructor, College of Education, University of Florida.
- 2019-2020: Internship Supervisor, Site-based Implementation of Teacher Education Program, College of Education, University of Florida.
- 2016-2019: Research Assistant, Institutional Review Board (IRB), Office of Research, University of Florida.
- 2012-2016: History Teacher, Saint Ignatius School, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Selected presentations
Silva, Carolyn. (2022, May). We were here all along: The Hidden Stories and Agentic Efforts of Afro-Brazilian Immigrants in Florida. Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Busey, Christopher, Silva, Carolyn. (2022, May). Hemispheric Perspectives on Critical Theories of Race in Education: A Side-By-Side Reading of Derrick Bell and Abdias do Nascimento. Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Silva, Carolyn. (2022, April). Beyond Latinidad, Towards Blackness: The Educational Experiences of Afro Brazilian Immigrants in South Florida. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, San Diego, California.
Silva, Carolyn. (2020, December). Miami’s Forgotten Brazilians: Racialization and the Politics of Exclusion of AfroBrazilians in South Florida. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida.
Silva, Carolyn. (2020, December). The Future of AfroLatinx Studies. Latinx Project. New York University.
Silva, Carolyn, Dowie-Chin, Tianna (2018, November). Call it like it is: A critical race theory examination of bullying in social studies curriculum. College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Busey, Christopher, Silva, Carolyn. (2018, November). Troubling the Essentialist Ethos of “Brown”: A Transnational Anti-Black Sociopolitical and Sociohistorical Genealogy of Latinxs as a Brown Monolith. American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Annual Conference, Greenville, SC.
Publications
Silva, Carolyn & Busey, Christopher (Forthcoming). Hemispheric Perspectives on Critical Theories of Race in Education: A Side-By-Side Reading of Derrick Bell and Abdias do Nascimento.
Silva, Carolyn. (2021). “Africa has a History:” An Afro-Diasporic Examination of Black Education in Colombia and Brazil. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal, DOI: 10.1080/17442222.2021.1974588.
Busey, C.L., & Silva, Carolyn (2020). Troubling the essentialist discourse of brown in education: The anti-black sociopolitical and sociohistorical etymology of Latinxs as a brown monolith. Educational Researcher, 50(3):176-186. DOI: 10.3102/0013189X20963582
Busey, Cristopher. L., & Silva, Carolyn. (2020). Black gendered lives matter everywhere: An intersectional and global approach to understanding anti-black racism, racial violence and Black resistance. In T. Hawley & P.T. Chandler (Eds.), Handbook on teaching social issues (2nd ed.). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Courses
- EDEL 453: Methods for Teaching PK-8 Social Studies
- EDEL 653: Methods for Teaching PK-8 Social Studies