Marta Ribeiro: Studying the Past, Speaking to the Future

PhD Spanish and Portuguese

Marta Ribeiro is an artist, researcher, and first-year PhD student in the Spanish and Portuguese Department at Temple University. Originally from Portugal, she holds degrees in Textual Interpretation from ESAD.CR (Portugal) and RESAD (Madrid), as well as dual Master’s degrees—with honors— in Theatre and Performing Arts and Artistic Education in Social and Cultural Institutions from the Complutense University of Madrid. Her research focuses on women's narratives in Latin American literature and performance, exploring how women tell their own histories through film, theatre, and literature..

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is your degree program, and can you briefly describe the chain of events that led you to graduate school at Temple?

Right now I'm a first-year PhD student in the Spanish and Portuguese department. The Spanish and Portuguese department has a PhD in Spanish, but you can study two types of programs. Once you do your examination, you can select linguistics or literature. But also in literature, you can mix with performing arts, audiovisual media, social philosophy. I actually saw a flyer for Temple University, and that it’s a research university on the East Coast and that they were offering tuition remission and a stipend. I was like, "No, this cannot be real,” because in Europe things are really different. So I decided to contact the graduate studies chair, who said "Yes, this is real, and you should apply.”
 

What are you enjoying about living and studying in Philadelphia?

The PhD program is pretty intense, so I haven’t the time yet to explore this marvelous state. But what I like in Philly is that it’s a small world. You have people from all countries, from all origins, living close together. Old City for me has the best streets—they are so pretty, and the architecture is something I really enjoy in Philly.

Can you tell us a little bit about your research?

My research revolves around the examination of how women tell their own history in literature, various literary movements, and across media. So, for instance, I’m taking I'm Still Here, a Brazilian film that won an Oscar last year, and a documentary from Argentina that speaks about literature, and I will also incorporate a play or theatrical performance from Mexico. So now this is my project. It’s been great, and I’m receiving a lot of opportunities—right now I’m a visiting scholar at Harvard. You never know the opportunities that can appear, if you put all of your effort into something you are interested in.

What impact do you hope your work will have within your field of study and beyond?

The other day we were talking about the French philosophy of Foucault. And somebody was saying, “Please stop mentioning Foucault. There’s a lot of women that speak about trauma too.” In all the movies of the Second World War, you only see a hero that is masculine. It looks like the women weren’t there—and they were, carrying the children as well as the economy. So I would like to change the point of view of the camera, and look at what the women also have to tell us about that time.

What specific challenges has being in grad school helped you learn to face?

Well, I crossed an ocean. I'm almost 5,000 miles from my hometown. One thing that a good friend told me yesterday is that you're in a new country and you need to try to adapt. A challenge that I’ve found is that I want to be a free person. I want to do the research and discover on my own what I think will work. Of course, I will always be listening to feedback. But I don’t want to live according to anybody trying to force you to be someone you are not. I also challenge myself to stay connected with the present—I don’t want to live in the past, even if my research is focused on history.

What do you consider your community at Temple? How has this community impacted you, and how do you hope to impact this community?

I would say that my community is made up mostly of my department colleagues. This year, I was the doctoral student representative. I always say that my office is like grandma's house, because everybody is always entering, sitting, talking, and I’m listening and trying to find solutions. Also here at Gladfelter, I have amazing colleagues from the history department that are also researching Latin American studies. This kind of collaboration reminds me that everything that is being written, researched, studied here at Temple is the present, and the present is the future. We are the future. We are researching the next paper students will be citing, writing the next book they’ll be reading, making the next film they’ll be watching.

What is some advice you’d offer to a potential graduate student?

Be loyal to yourself and your vision, but stay open to listening and learning. There will be difficult moments, but you need to believe in your purpose and find the people who really listen and care. Open your eyes, open your ears, try to be ethical, be respectful with everybody, and go for your goals.