Her research asks how ideologies of race and nation have shaped citizenship in Latin American societies since independence. She is particularly interested in the ways that competing definitions of race and nation, enunciated by political and intellectual elites as well as by people of color, produced different multi-racial societies and different ideas about the meanings of racial inclusiveness across Latin America. More broadly, she is interested in the ways that ideas of the racialized nation have historically constituted a point of convergence and trans-national discussion for Latin American intellectuals, as well as a point of entry for historical studies of the idea of Latin America itself. Her book, Terms of Inclusion, charts the changing terms through which black intellectuals in Brazil defined their multi-racial nation, and their own citizenship within it, between 1920 and 1980. The book draws upon on the understudied writings of black intellectuals themselves-specifically, Brazil's rich imprensa negra or black press. It explores the various ways that these intellectuals used metaphors of the racialized nation like "racial fraternity" and "racial democracy" (generally understood as oppressive dominant discourses) to argue for their inclusion in the nation, and for their rights to racial and cultural distinctiveness. Articles: “Of Sentiment, Science, and Myth: Changing Metaphors of Racial Inclusion in Twentieth-Century Brazil.” Social History 37:3 (August 2012). “Paraafricano ver: Intercâmbios africano-bahianos na reinvenção dademocracia racial brasileira, 1961-63.” Afro-Ásia 44 (April 2012). “When Rio was Black: Soul Music, National Culture, and the Politics of Racial Comparison in 1970s Brazil.” Hispanic American Historical Review 89:1 (February 2009). “Para Africano Ver: African-Bahian Exchanges in the Reinvention of Brazil’s Racial Democracy, 1961-63.” Luso-Brazilian Review 45:1 (June 2008).
