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Throughout the years, I have led lectures, seminars, and workshops in various European, Scandinavian, and American countries, visiting companies, universities, schools, and hospitals. More than just presentations, these gatherings have been transformative experiences themselves—spaces where I invite each person to rethink the way they interpret the world, texts, and themselves. Conversely, I transform myself.

This international journey includes notable moments such as offering Keynote Addresses at the REMAP event at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in October 2025; at the International Conference The Didactics of Literature as a Field of Research (Convegno internazionale La Didattica della Letteratura Come Campo di Ricerca) at the Universita degli Studi di Siena, Italy, in June 2025; and at the 2nd International Scientific Conference Shared Reading Aloud (Secondo Convegno Scientifico Internazionale La Lettura Ad Alta Voce Condivisa) at the Universita degli Studi di Perugia, Italy, in December 2024.

Other highlights include serving as invited speaker at the “Religious Imagination in the Late Medieval Low Countries” workshop, held at the Lorentz Center@Snellius, Leiden University, the Netherlands, in January 2024; at the Conference on Literacy, Empathy, and Social Sustainability at Halmstad University, Sweden, in September 2017; at the Symposium “Evaluation and Assessment of Interpretation in the Literature Classroom” during the 9th IAIMTE Conference (EARLI) in Paris, in June 2013, among others.

Offering invited public lectures at diverse institutes and universities has also been treasure to me, including public lectures at the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, on November 18, 2024 (invited by the Literature and Religion Research Group, UiB); lectures given for secondary education teachers during the University of Oslo Open Day (Åpen dag), University of Oslo, March 11, 2021 (Website: https://www.uio.no/studier/apen-dag/miniforelesninger.html) and higher education teachers during the University of Oslo Annual Teacher’s Open Day (Faglig-pedagogisk dag), University of Oslo, on October 29, 2020. (Website: https://www.hf.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/lce/news-and-events/news/2020/olivia-fialho-faglig-pedagogisk-dag.html). It was also of great value offering a lecture as part of the prestigious lecture series “Empirical Approaches to Literature: Chances and Challenges”, for the establishment of the ACCELS, the Aachen Centre for Cognitive and Empirical Literary Studies, English Department, Aachen University, Germany, on November 25, 2019 (Website: https://www.accels.rwth-aachen.de/cms/ACCELS/Veranstaltungen/Ringvorlesung/~dpvqb/Olivia-Da-Costa-Fialho-To-Be-Announced/lidx/1/ )

I am also greatly indebted to being a member of several interdisciplinary research teams, contexts where fruitful intellectual exchanges have added to Transformative Reading. I am grateful for being part of the MORE research team - Moral residue – epistemological ramifications, ethical implications, and didactic opportunities (MORE), https://www.med.uio.no/helsam/english/research/projects/more/index.html/ , to the Impact and Fiction research group (Huygens Institute, Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), https://www.huygens.knaw.nl/en/projecten/impact-and-fiction/; https://impactandfiction.huygens.knaw.nl/, to LCE (Literature, Cognition and Emotions Research Center) at the University of Oslo (https://www.hf.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/lce/index.html>); of the Research Team in Language, Literature and Arts Education at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education (RICDE), University of Amsterdam, led by Prof. dr. Gert Rijlaarsdam; to the Reader Response Lab at the Departments of English & Film Studies and Psychology, University of Alberta, led by Profs. David Miall and Don Kuiken; and to REDES (Research for the Development of Empirical Studies of Literature and Culture), led by Prof. Sonia Zyngier (English, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

Finally, I had the most absolute pleasure to have been mentored by Prof. David Miall (University of Alberta) and by Prof. Sonia Zyngier (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), who have always inspired me with their state-of-the-art research and commitment to literature education and research ethics. Prof. Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo) has also had a positive impact in my work as scholar and leader.

Each of these experiences has helped shape a unique method—deep, sensitive, and structured—designed for those who are ready to embark on a true process of transformation.

Expanding consciousness, refining perception, and accessing new layers of understanding is at the core of the program.

It is not just about reading.

It is about transformation.

This is the Transformative Reading Program.

Olívia Fialho