About
I am Professor of Brazilian Studies at the University of Liverpool where I focus exclusively on research and public impact work. My research interests are Brazilian cultural history, with an emphasis on 20th-century popular theatre, music and film, and how popular culture can be harnessed as a wellbeing tool. In 2011 I was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, which enabled me to carry out archival research in Brazil for the monograph Tropical Travels: Brazilian Popular Performance, Transnational Encounters, and the Construction of Race (University of Texas Press, 2018). I led the Impact project "Cinema, Memory and Wellbeing", which explored the use of music and film as a reminiscence tool to improve the emotional wellbeing of the older population, and involved outreach initiatives on Merseyside and in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. I am currently working with colleagues at the University of Liverpool and community partners across the Liverpool City Region on the research and impact project "Music Reminiscence and Community Wellbeing on Merseyside". This project involves working with the local Chilean, Yemeni and Ukrainian communities and National Museums Liverpool's House of Memories programme to explore how music-related reminiscence workshops can help foster a sense of community identity and wellbeing amongst migrant groups, and how music can be the focus for inter-generational and inter-community engagement and understanding.
Prizes or Honours
- Adjunct research fellow (Monash University, Melbourne, 2010)
Funded Fellowships
- Senior Research Fellowship (Leverhulme Trust in collaboration with the British Academy, 2011)
- Visiting professor in Brazilian Culture and Civilization (University of California, Los Angeles, 1999)