Research Interests

• Social History of Brazil
• Latin American Economic History
• Wealth and Inequality
• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Terrain of History
• Spatial History http://www.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/index.html
  

Current Research Projects

• Spatial History Project
  With Richard White, Jon Christensen, Matt Booker, Erik Steiner, and Mithu Datta
• Terrain of History: Spatial History of Rio de Janeiro, 1840s-1930s
  With Sidney Chalhoub, Silvia Lara, Maria Clementina Pereira Cunha, Claudio Batalha, and Samuel Fernando de Souza (all affiliated with CECULT—UNICAMP); and James Green  (Brown University)
  • Sample Publication: “Layers, Flows and Intersections: Jeronymo José de Mello and Artisan Life in Rio de Janeiro, 1840s-1880s,” Journal of Social History 41:2 (Winter 2007), 307-328.
• Social and environmental transformation in Chile's aquaculture industry, 1950-2000
  Woods Institute Environmental Venture Project, 2008-2010
  Co-PI with Andy Gernart, Roz Naylor, Meg Caldwell, Richard White and Hal Mooney
• Business Partnerships in Rio de Janeiro, 1870-1891
  Ongoing research project with Ran Abramitzky (Economics) and Aprajit Mahajan (Economics); Research assistance provided by Tereza Cristina Alves and Elsa Campos
• Executive Compensation and Income Inequality in Brazil
  Ongoing research project with Aldo Musacchio (Harvard Business School); Research assistance provided by Tereza Cristina Alves
• People of Minas Gerais: Parish Records, Race, and Social Dynamics in the Rio das Mortes, 1720-1850
  Ongoing research project with Douglas Cole Libby (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte)
  • SAMPLE PUBLICATION: “Exploring Parish Registers in Colonial Minas Gerais, Brazil: Ethnicity in São José do Rio das Mortes, 1780-1810,” with Douglas Libby, Colonial Latin American Historical Review 17:3 (Summer 2008)

Courses Taught

• Culture, Politics, and Society in Latin America
• Latin American Development: Economy and Society, 1800-2000
• Modern Brazil

Recent Publications

• Stature in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro: preliminary evidence from prison records," Revista de Historia Económica (Madrid), 2nd series, vol. 3 (winter 2006)
• From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal, and Zephyr Frank, editors
• "Cities and Wealth in the South Atlantic: Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro before 1860," Comparative Studies in Society and History 48:3 (July 2006), with Lyman Johnson
• "Wealth Holding in Southeastern Brazil, 1815-1860," Hispanic American Historical Review 85:2 (2005)
• Dutra's World: Wealth and Family in Ninteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004)

Awards

• Dean's Distinguished Teaching Award (2008)