There is power in being Latinx!

World Languages and Cultures (WLC) Professor Michele Dávila Gonçalves emphasizes the breadth and depth of the influences on Puerto Rican, Brazilian and Latinx cultures in her scholarship and teaching. Spanning 19 different countries in the Americas with diverse languages and dialects, she explains that the Latinx world is not homogeneous, but shaped by indigenous, African, and European cultures. “Students identify with their cultural affinity, but there are things they’ve never learned about their own history, their language and culture. This knowledge impacts their way of being,” she says with enthusiasm.

Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, Dávila has taught 28 different courses in 15 years. “I like to do different things and keep changing and developing myself. I don’t like to do the same thing all the time,” says this avid explorer, who’s traveled to 59 countries and territories around the globe.

Dávila's service to the Salem community, SSU campus, and the profession is equally as extensive, varied, and impressive. Among her proud accomplishments, she cites establishing two Latinx-centered diversity, power dynamics, and social justice (DPDS) courses (one about immigration and the other about literature), advising 76 students in graduate and undergrad symposiums, and serving as a department chair for six years. She’s also created a first-year seminar about the impact of Latinx in the U.S., and she follows her students during their stay at SSU, and afterwards. In her SPN 382 class, “I set up a debate about immigration. Teaching the Latinx students how to debunk myths about immigration and to defend their position really helps their sense of pride,” says Dávila. She has also led professional faculty development efforts as the faculty fellow for the diversity and multicultural affairs office, co-leads the campus Latinx ERG (Employee Resource Group) planning events for community enhancement, and currently serves as the faculty fellow for Latinx Student Success while helping with the HSI-MSI initiatives, specifically reviewing, and editing SSU’s documents for new students in Spanish.

Last year, she attended WLC 300, an introductory course in translation taught by her colleague Kristine Doll, studying the theory behind translation. Dávila enjoyed the class so much that she offered to teach the advanced Spanish translation course, where students are working on translations in both Spanish and Portuguese this year. This experience has taught her that there are opportunities to integrate Portuguese-speaking students into her classes more. Dávila has experienced how speaking in their native language helps draw students out, enabling them to better access all the resources of the university.

Dávila is proud of the connection she makes with students. “Students come here and can talk and be open,” she says. She adds that her Latinx students and their peers give her so much hope for the future. “There are many ideas and stereotypes about Latinx historically, but they don’t have them! They are coming with such an open mind, not absorbing the stereotypes; it is so beautiful to see!”

As the number of Latinx students at Salem State grows, she says, “we need more professors that represent our student population, and we need to value and retain them,” too. “The university’s emerging, new status as an HSI-MSI feels wonderful,” Dávila says. She hopes that this, “new focus will help make college more accessible, more inviting and welcoming to students from all the Americas and beyond,” she says.

Teaching is truly her passion. Dávila says that students inspire her. When she’s in front of a class, everything else fades away. The classroom is her stage and where she feels the most impact.

“It is so important for students to understand themselves, who they are and what they really want, and we can explore different facets in every class” says Dávila. “They need that grounding to be self-reflective, to explore and answer, ‘what do you want? who are you?’ and to decide that for themselves,” she says. “There is so much they can contribute to our society. There is power in being Latinx!”