UC San Diego
Department of History
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Jessica Graham Jessica Graham
Department of History
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive MC 0104
La Jolla , California , 92093-0104
jlgraham@ucsd.edu
(858)822-4824

Curriculum Vitae

Jessica Graham completed her Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago (2010) and a master’s degree in Africana Studies at Cornell University (2000).  During a break from graduate school after leaving Cornell, Professor Graham spent two months in Brazil, where her experiences with Afro-Brazilian academics and activists led to an interest in Brazilian history.  Her current book manuscript,  Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Racial Inclusion as a Strategy of the U.S. and Brazilian States, 1930-45, assesses Brazil and the United States during the Great Depression and World War II.  Her book examines the impact of communism, fascism, the Second World War, and Brazil-U.S. relations on evolving racial meanings of political democracy in both nations.  Research for the project has been supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Archive Center, a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship, a University of Notre Dame Erskine A. Peters Dissertation Fellowship, and a University of Notre Dame Moreau Postdoctoral Fellowship, among others.  Professor Graham’s most recent publication, in the Brazilian historical journal O Tempo, analyzes black pugilist Joe Louis and shifts in U.S. racial nationalism during the 1930s.

Research Interests

Twentieth century U.S. and Brazil, (U.S.) African American and Afro-Brazilian history, race, political ideology, cultural policy/diplomacy, and transnational history.

Courses Offered to Include:

  • History of Brazil to 1889
  • History of Brazil, 1889 to the Present
  • African American Internationalism