I work at the intersection of critical animal studies, decolonial studies and comparative race and slavery studies. Above all, I am interested in troubling the human/ animal divide, anthropocentrism and the entanglement of animalization with racialization. My publications include the book chapters, "Dogs without Masters: Astray with Akbar and in André Alexis' Fifteen Dogs" (2022), "A Pale Shade of Violet: Animals and Race in Machado de Assis" (2022), “Haunting Pigs, Swimming Jaguars: Mourning, Animals and Ayahuasca” (2020) and "Slave Barracks Aristocrats: Islam and the Orient in the Work of Gilberto Freyre" (2014); the articles, "Of She-Wolves and Mad Cows: Animality, Anthropophagy and the State of Exception in Cláudio Assis's Amarelo Manga" (2011) and “Akbar Stole My Heart: Coming Out as an Animalist” (2013); the monograph, White Negritude: Race, Writing and Brazilian Cultural Identity (2008); and the edited volume, The Masters and the Slaves: Plantation Relations and Mestizaje in American Imaginaries (2005). In addition to my scholarly publications, I have written for media including The Advocate, The Conversation, CounterPunch, Ms. Magazine, Persianesque, the Folha de S. Paulo and Truthout.
William J. Fulbright Fellow, Mellon Fellow