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Paul Sneed

Paul Sneed, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, received a B.A. degree in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Portuguese from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a wide range of research interests in Brazilian literature and culture, with a focus on contemporary popular music of the favelas, or squatter towns, of Rio de Janeiro. Before joining the faculty at KU, he taught at San Diego State University (2005-2007) and the University of Oklahoma (2003-2005). He has published articles in Hispania, the Latin American Music Review, the Latin American Research Review (forthcoming), and World Literature Today. He is currently working on a book-length project in which he explores representations of Rio’s criminal factions in proibidão funk and the utopian repercussions of the African Diaspora in funk culture. In Brazil in 1998, he co-founded the Instituto Dois Irmãos, a tax-exempt, non-governmental organization, and in 1999 co-founded its partner organization in the U.S., the Two Brothers Foundation (www.2bros.org). Since that time, he has worked with these organizations in their mission to promote education, community service, and international cultural exchange in the favela, or squatter town of Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro, and to offer students and researchers from around the world opportunities to live and work in Rocinha through service learning-based initiatives.