I was trained as a historian at Princeton University, and am currently an Assistant Professor of History at IE University. Before coming to Madrid, I previously taught at Singapore Management University and Princeton University’s Writing Program.
My main field of research is the history of modern France (1700 to the present), and I work on a variety of topics that include the history of technology, urban history, and exchanges between France and Latin America. I am currently writing a cultural history of the intense ballooning revival that France experienced in the late nineteenth century.
My work has been recognized by the Royal Society’s Notes and Records Essay Award (awarded to the best essay on the history of science, technology, or medicine in any period), and the Western Society for French History’s Millstone Prize (awarded to the best interdisciplinary paper presented at the annual conference). But I think my proudest achievement was receiving a rare email from Donald Knuth (the “father of the analysis of algorithms”) saying that an article I had written on scientific ballooning was "the best article on history of science that I can recall for many years."
I am also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (where I was previously both a predoctoral and postdoctoral Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fellow). My research has also been supported by Sciences Po, the Huntington Library, and the Linda Hall Library.
I was born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and a proud University of Kansas Jayhawk, where I graduated with distinction in History and Journalism and spent countless nights working at The University Daily Kansan’s newsroom. Before going into academia, I had brief stints in journalism (as an intern for NPR's Weekend Edition) and publishing (as an intern for Verso Books)—experiences that continue to shape my urge to write for broader audiences. You can check out some of my public-facing writings in English at The Washington Post, Slate, Jacobin, and The Age of Revolutions.
