I conduct research on public culture, language, music, and intellectual property in Latin America (Brazil), and North America.
Current
My book manuscript, Pirate Wars: Intellectual Property and Digital Culture in Brazil, investigates the way in which the policing of “pirated” or “counterfeited” goods shapes consumer economies and self-perceptions.
Past
My last book, River of Tears: Country Music, Memory, and Modernity in Brazil (Duke, 2009) was the first ethnography of Brazilian rural musical genres (called música seraneja and música caipira). The book linked their explosive popularity in the early 1990s with anxieties over the speed and scale of economic and social reform.
Future
My next projects include an analysis of the category of “risk” in the context of investment banking, and Washington DC’s quest for statehood.