Research
I am currently working with colleagues in the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool on the project 'Music Reminiscence and Community Wellbeing on Merseyside'. We are working with community partners from across the city-region and with National Museums Liverpool's House of Memories team, and our focus is on the music-related reminiscences of local Chilean, Yemeni and Ukrainian people.
Brazilian popular culture
My research has been focused on the following areas:
Brazilian cinema,especially popular genres;
Brazilian popular music and film music;
popular cultural production in Brazil from the 1920s to the 1960s;
Portuguese popular cinema;
Brazilian popular culture (music, dance and popular theatre) within the context of transatlantic currents between the 1870s and the 1940s;
film stars and stardom in Brazil;
Cinema, music, reminiscence and wellbeing
I lead an Impact project called "Cinema, Memory and Wellbeing", which explored the therapeutic benefits of reminiscence stimulated by music and film for the older population. This project involved initiatives in the Liverpool city region and in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and collaboration with nursing homes and day care centres, GP practices, and NGOs. This project was supported by an International Knowledge Exchange Voucher and HEIF funding from the University of Liverpool, as well as the Newton Fund (ODA) and small grants from local organisations on Merseyside, such as the Happy Older People (HOP) network.
Music Reminiscence and Community Wellbeing on Merseyside
With colleagues from the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool I am exploring 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.
Research grants
AHRC IAA 22-25
ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
April 2022 - December 2025
Gender, Race and Performance: re-visiting the Black Atlantic
INSTITUTE OF MODERN LANGUAGES RESEARCH (UK)
January 2018 - July 2019
Tropical Travels and Transatlantic Dialogues: Brazilian Popular Culture Abroad, 1870-1945
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
January 2012 - December 2012
Stardom, ethnicity and masculinity in Brazilian popular film of the 1950s.
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
March 2006