I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies, and the Convenor of the Masters in Reparatory Justice, a double-degree programme in partnership with the Centre for Reparations Research at the University of the West Indies. 

Trained as an anthropologist, most of my work and teaching projects focus on indigenous peoples in Brazil and the African diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean. I graduated from the University of São Paulo with a BA in Social Sciences and earned my Ph.D. in Anthropology at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. 

Before joining the University of Glasgow in December 2024, I was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University (2022-2023) and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana Studies at Williams College (2023-2024). 

In 2018, inspired by a collective of Black undergraduate students, we co-created a syllabus entirely based on pioneering Black anthropologists from the African continent and the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean. In 2022, the Brazilian Anthropological Association awarded the initiative the Best Teaching Project in Brazil. It also received the Award for Science Communication. In 2023, I was awarded as a Fellow of the Leadership Program of the American Anthropological Association.

Over the past few years, I have edited and translated into Brazilian Portuguese books by Zora Neale Hurston, Sefi Atta, Junot Díaz, and John Steinbeck, among others. In 2021, I wrote an introduction to the Brazilian edition of Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston.

At the University of Glasgow, I look forward to inviting students to learn from and connect with Black and Indigenous authors from the Global South.

My research focuses on the following areas:

• The Black diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.
• Afrodiasporic literature and cultural history.
• Black and Indigenous experiences within and beyond slavery. 
• The study of the lives and work of pioneering Black anthropologists.
• Racism and antiracism in the history of Anthropology and Social Sciences.
• Indigenous peoples in Brazil.

My first book project, Black Voices in Anthropology (in progress), seeks to unveil key aspects of the lives and work of Black authors still unknown to most social scientists. Its primary outcome is to offer an antiracist contribution to the teaching of anthropology through an Afrodiasporic framework, focusing on the following authors: Joseph A. Antenor Firmin (Haiti, 1850-1911); Martin Delany (USA, 1812-1885); Manuel Querino (Brazil, 1851-1923); Zora Neale Hurston (USA, 1891- 1960); Jean Price-Mars (Haiti, 1876-1969); Katherine Dunham (USA, 1909-2006); Pearl Primus (Trinidad & Tobago, 1919-1994); Edison Carneiro (Brazil, 1912-1972); Virginia Bicudo (Brazil, 1910-2003); Lélia Gonzalez (Brazil, 1935-1994); Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya, 1897-1978); Manuel Zapata Olivella (Colombia, 1920-2004); Safi Faye (Senegal, 1943-2023); Archie Mafeje (South Africa, 1936-2007). The introduction provides a brief history of the teaching project, the context in which it has flourished, and its resonances with other recent antiracist measures in Latin America, focusing on those directly related to affirmative action and curricular redesign in Social Sciences and Anthropology. The book takes part of its inspiration from the work of Ira and Faye Harrison (1999) and Ira Harrison et al. (2018). Nonetheless, it intends to expand them to include African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latin American perspectives in the list of the contributions of pioneering Black authors in the history of the discipline.

My second book project will focus on Katherine Dunham’s influence on Brazilian culture (and vice-versa) and the anti-discrimination legislation enacted primarily in response to an incident where she was discriminated against because of her race. The main goal is to conduct archival research and literature review about the African American dancer and anthropologist, examining her travels and experiences in Brazil. Her tour through Brazilian cities and theatres was widely covered in newspapers and magazines, sparking a vivid interest in Afrodiasporic art and culture. Katherine Dunham also played a vital role in enacting Brazil’s first law prohibiting racial discrimination. In 1951, a famous hotel denied her and her company entry into the building, sparking a national conversation around the myth of racial democracy and the pervasive legacy of slavery in the country.

My next research project is titled Untold Lives: Black Enslaved People and the Scottish Trade in South America. It is sponsored by the Chancellor's Fund (2025-2026) at the University of Glasgow. 

This project focuses on a lesser-known aspect of the British relationship with slavery in South America, particularly Scottish slaveholding in the region. Building on recent archival findings, this project aims to uncover the life stories of enslaved Black people held by Scots in South America or brought to Scotland during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. For example, Lewis Black (1820-1866), a Black teenager, was bought in Rio de Janeiro by Alexander Mackay and later transported to Montrose, Angus. He reportedly lived as a 'freed man' for over fifty years, attending school, marrying, and fathering five children. Documents held at Montrose Museum suggest that Lewis became a 'general favourite' due to his 'charm, principles, and intellect.' Although there is no scholarly work on his life, family, and descendants, Lewis Black is among a select group of individuals portrayed by the Scottish painter James Irvine (1822-1889), which allows us to add a vivid visual dimension to historical records. Another relevant case involves the Black individuals held captive by Robert Halliday Gunning (1818-1900), a Scottish physician who resided in Brazil for many years and subsequently became a prominent benefactor of the University of Edinburgh. This project aims to identify and examine literature and archives in Scotland (in-person and digital) and in South America (digital collections and/or in partnership with local scholars and institutions) to uncover these life stories.

I am currently working on three articles:

• Student-led Change: How Black and Indigenous Students are Transforming Anthropology in Brazil.
• Penning the Path: Black Studies and the Afro-Atlantic print culture.
• Sylvia Wynter & Lélia Gonzalez: an Amefrican dialogue. 

Prior publications

Grants and Awards

• Chancellor's Fund, University of Glasgow, UK (2025)
• Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana Studies, Williams College (2023-2024)
• Leadership Fellows Program, American Anthropological Association (2023)
• Best Teaching Project in Brazil, Brazilian Anthropological Association (2022)
• 1st Prize in Science Communication and Public Outreach, Brazilian Anthropological Association (2022)
• PhD Fellowship, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil (2014-2020)
• PhD Internship at the School of Advanced Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Argentina (2015)
• MA Fellowship, São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil (2008-2011)

I am interested in supervising research projects that align with any of the following areas and topics:

• The Black diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.
• Afrodiasporic literature and cultural history. 
• Black and Indigenous experiences within and beyond slavery. 
• Indigenous peoples in the Americas and the Caribbean.
• History of Anthropology and Social Sciences.  

I am currently supervising the following students: 

• Lottie Fountain, "Transformations in Indigenous Faunal Relationships: The Impact of European Livestock Introduction and the Objectification of Animals in 19th-Century Argentina."
• Shannon MacLean. Capoeira and the Black diasporic community in Glasgow, Scotland: a case study in oral history 
• Katie Bonnyman. The UK, the Caribbean, and the quest for reparations. 

Sub-honours:

• Global History

Honours:

• Black Communities in the Diaspora 

Masters:

• Political Violence
• Reparations Now

Prizes, awards & distinctions

• 2023: Leadership Fellows Program (American Anthropological Association)
• 2022: Best Teaching Project (Brazilian Anthropological Association)
• 2022: 1st Award in Science Communication (Brazilian Anthropological Association)

Research fellowships

• 2023 - 2024: Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana Studies, Williams College, USA
• 2022 - 2023: Visiting Research Associate, ALARI, Hutchins Center, Harvard University

Professional & learned societies

• 2023 - 2026: Member of the Scientific Communication and Outreach Committee, Brazilian Anthropological Association