Jessica Graham

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 book, Shifting
the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and
Brazil (University of California Press, 2019) assesses Brazil and the United States
during the Great Depression and World War II. Her book examines the impact of
communism, fascism, Black activism, the Second World War, and Brazil-U.S.
relations on evolving racial meanings of political democracy in both nations. The
book received many prizes and honors from the Latin American Studies
Association, the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora,
The Conference on Latin American History, the Brazilian Studies Association, and
the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Professor Graham’s second book
will analyze Black activists on the Left and the Right in Brazil in the 1930s.

Professor Graham’s 2013 Founders’ Day Talk on UCSD TV

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

• History of Brazil to 1889
• History of Brazil, 1889 to the Present
• African American Internationalism
• Race and Ethnicity in the United States (HILD 7A)