Queer & Trans Studies
I explore how bodies, identities, and forms of knowledge are classified—and how queer and trans theory can help us question what is treated as normal, natural, or authoritative.
bodies · power · knowledge
Academic portfolio · Victoria, BC
Thiago Afonso Nogueira
I study how language, literature, and culture shape the ways we understand identity, difference, and belonging.
Lake Louise, Alberta
Queer & Trans Studies✦
Victorian Gothic✦
Sociolinguistics✦
Language Education✦
01 / About
A path across languages, literature, and gender
Questions travel.
So has my work.
I’m Thiago Afonso Nogueira, a Gender Studies student at the University of Victoria with earlier training in Portuguese and English language and literature in Brazil. My work brings together queer and trans studies, Victorian Gothic literature, sociolinguistics, and education.
Before coming to UVic, I completed two funded undergraduate research projects on linguistic variation, teacher beliefs, textbooks, and literacy. I also participated in a public-school teaching initiative and published research on language education.
Across these fields, I return to a shared concern: how language, literature, and institutions decide which identities appear normal, which voices sound legitimate, and whose experiences become visible.
03peer-reviewed publications
02funded research projects
2015–research, teaching, and study
02 / Areas of inquiry
Questions that guide my work
Different fields, one ongoing project: understanding how knowledge organizes identity, power, and belonging—and how those arrangements can be questioned.
Victorian Gothic & Decadence
From Frankenstein to The Picture of Dorian Gray, I read Gothic and decadent literature as spaces where desire, fear, identity, and social expectations become visible.
desire · monstrosity · normativity
Language, Education & Sociolinguistics
Building on my research in Brazil, I study linguistic variation, language beliefs, literacy, and Portuguese education, with attention to identity, inequality, and whose ways of speaking are valued.
variation · literacy · voice
03 / Academic journey
From Brazil to Canada
Each stage expanded the questions I could ask—from language and literacy to literature, gender, sexuality, and power.
2024—Now
University of Victoria · Canada
Gender Studies
Undergraduate studies focused on gender, sexuality, trans studies, intersectionality, health, colonialism, and the politics of knowledge.
2024—2025
Universidade Estácio de Sá · Brazil
Postgraduate Specialization
Advanced study in English Language and Literatures, with a final project in English and Gothic literature.
2015—2019
Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro · Brazil
Portuguese & English Languages
Licentiate degree combining language, literature, education, classroom practice, and research in educational sociolinguistics.
04 / Selected work
Research & publications
My published research asks how beliefs about language enter classrooms, teaching materials, and judgments about speakers.
01
Linguistic Beliefs of Portuguese Language Teachers in the Public School System of Buritizal-SP
A qualitative study of how teachers understand language, linguistic variation, and Portuguese teaching—and how standard-language beliefs coexist with more critical awareness of identity and context.
With Fabiana Sene and Juliana Bertucci Barbosa · Olhar de Professor, 29, 1–22
02
Phonological Awareness and Literacy: An Actual Relationship in Teaching Materials Used by Teachers?
Documentary research examining whether early elementary teaching materials include activities that develop phonological awareness and connect it to the literacy process.
With Juliana Bertucci Barbosa · DLCV, 15(1), 2–28
03
O gênero literatura de cordel como instrumento didático-metodológico no ensino de Língua Portuguesa
A study of Brazilian cordel literature as a teaching resource in Portuguese language education, developed through a public-school classroom initiative.
With collaborators · Nucleus, 13(1), 309–316
05 / Community & practice
Learning with communities
I understand education as a form of community action. Research matters most when it helps people recognize inequality, question inherited assumptions, and imagine different ways of living together.
Survivor-centred health care
In a Gender Studies course project, I examined intimate partner violence and barriers to survivor-centred health care in Canada and Brazil. The work considered how racism, transphobia, homophobia, and economic inequality can shape access to safety and support—especially for Black and Indigenous communities, women, trans people, and 2SLGBTQ+ people.
Language in the classroom
Through PIBID and undergraduate research in Brazil, I learned to see the classroom as a place where ideas about “correct” language can either reproduce inequality or make room for students’ identities, histories, and ways of speaking.
Knowledge that can travel
My goal is to connect research, education, advocacy, and clear communication. That means translating theory into language that can move beyond the classroom while staying accountable to the people and experiences it describes.
06 / Teaching & presentations
Ideas become meaningful when they are shared.
My academic experience includes public-school teaching, conference presentations, and work across literary studies, literacy, and sociolinguistics.
Frankenstein and the Rhetoric of Desire
Literary presentation
The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray and Queer Literature
Literary presentation
Language Variation, Literacy & Education
Research presentations and classroom work
Full academic record
Looking for the details?
Education, publications, presentations, scholarships, and research experience.
07 / Contact
Let’s connect
A conversation can be the start of a new question.
If you would like to talk about queer and trans studies, Gothic literature, language education, or a possible collaboration, I would be happy to hear from you.
thiagonogueira@uvic.ca