I am a scholar of Latin American history and media focusing on Brazil. My research and teaching interests explore the intersections of Cold War politics, Latin American and Latine history, and popular culture and media. I received my PhD in History from Brown University in 2022 and am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in Latin American and Latino Studies at Swarthmore College. Prior to Swarthmore, I was a Lecturer in the Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbeans Studies at Dartmouth College (2022-2023) and a Marilyn Yarbrough Dissertation Fellow and Visiting Instructor in History at Kenyon College (2021-2022).

My current book project, Soul of a Modern Nation: Television in Cold War Brazil, under contract with Cambridge University Press, explores the rise of television at a moment of political transition within Brazil in dialogue with Cold War geopolitics in the region. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, my work combines Latin American history with television and media studies to reposition television as a crucial Cold War battleground in which various historical actors disputed morality and political meaning—with significant consequences for Brazilian society and culture.

I was born in Belo Horizonte, MG in Brazil and grew up in Massachusetts. I enjoy hiking in New England, exploring coffee shops, and, of course, watching TV.

Research & Publications

Current Book Project

Soul of a Modern Nation: Television in Cold War Brazil, explores the rise of television during Brazil’s transition from democracy to dictatorship (1964-1985). This project emphasizes how TV programs and the cultural discourses they generated constitute an ideal prism through which to explore the interplay of morality and cultural politics against the backdrop of Cold War authoritarianism. Tracing the development of the medium in Brazil, this work highlights the hemispheric dimensions of Cold War-era discourses on development, technology and morality, and their impact on Brazilian television.

My  research has been funded by the American Philosophical Society, the Tinker Foundation, and a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, as well as internal support from Brown University, Kenyon College, Dartmouth College, and Swarthmore College.

Scholarly publications

“Television for Social Change: Transnational Networks and Educational TV in Cold War Brazil,” Journal of Cold War Studies. (Accepted Fall 2021)

ABSTRACT: This article examines the transnational networks and dialogues that made educational television a matter of national security and a tool for development in Cold War Brazil. The history of television during the Cold War has generally focused on the United States and Western Europe, and to a lesser extent the Soviet Union and its allies, leaving Latin America on the peripheries of scholarship on the era’s essential communications medium. By situating the development of Brazilian educational television in a hemispheric context, this article illuminates the transnational exchanges between U.S. communications scholars and politicians, Brazilian technocrats and military officers, and international aid organizations that simultaneously positioned television as a potential danger to the moral development of children and a tool for educational uplift just as Brazil entered a military dictatorship (1964-85).

Selected Recent Conference Papers

“Making the Brazilian Home: Education and Consumption on Women’s Daytime Programs, 1950-1970.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies, Boston MA (March 2024)

“From Street to Vila: Educational Television and the Children’s Television Workshop in Cold War Brazil.” Latin American Studies Association, Vancouver, Canada & Virtual (May 2023)

“Vila Sésamo: Cold War Politics and the Brazilian Adaptation of Sesame Street.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies, Denver CO (April 2023)

Public Humanities Work

From 2022-2023 I worked as a freelance researcher on topics ranging from popular culture, moral panic, and Brazilian politics for the youtube channel Wisecrack.

Teaching Experience

My teaching philosophy is grounded in my commitment to facilitate different modes of engaging with the past, as such my courses emphasize popular culture as a valuable category for historical analysis. In the classroom, I encourage students to think critically about history by analyzing popular culture and media. I have over six years of experience teaching at an undergraduate level in classes ranging from advanced, thematic seminars to lecture courses in History, Latin American Studies, and Film and Media Studies.

For a full list of my teaching experience, please see my CV.

Instructor of Record

  • Swarthmore College (Spring 2024)

  • Swarthmore College (Fall 2023, Fall 2024))

    Kenyon College (Spring 2022)

  • Dartmouth College (Fall 2022)

  • Dartmouth College (Winter 2023)

  • Dartmouth College (Winter 2023)

  • Dartmouth College (Spring 2023)

  • Dartmouth College (Spring 2023)

  • Kenyon College (Fall 2021)

    Wheaton College (Spring 2021)

Let’s stay in touch…

Contact me: talmeid1 (at) swarthmore (dot) edu