This panel discussion brings together researchers from King’s College London and the School of Social Sciences at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV CPDOC), a leading HEI and historical research institute that holds a major collection of personal archives, oral histories and audiovisual sources pertaining to Brazilian contemporary history. The panellists will present their most recent projects and explore intersections between their research agendas to consolidate international and interinstitutional collaboration on research and impact activities. The discussion will expand on their current collaboration on the project “The Spectacle of Propaganda: Alan Fisher’s photography and US Information Service operations in Brazil” (AHRC IAA). The project curates and integrates photographic collections currently held at FGV CPDOC (Brazil) and at the Alan Fisher Archive (US) and gives researchers and broader audiences access to unexplored images by US photographer and Foreign Service officer Alan Fisher (1913-1988). Some of his photographs document campaigns of propaganda and cultural diplomacy organised by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and the US State Department in Brazil in the 1940s and 1950s.

Speakers

Daniel Mandur Thomaz

Daniel Mandur Thomaz is a Senior Lecturer in Brazilian and Latin American Studies at King’s College London (Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities) and a Fellow of King’s Brazil Institute (School of Global Affairs). His research interests span the history of transnational media, propaganda and its relationship with cultural practices. He is a member of the editorial board of Brasiliana: Journal for Brazilian Studies and the PI of the project “The Spectacle of Propaganda: Alan Fisher’s photography and US Information Service operations in Brazil” (AHRC IAA). His most recent book is Transatlantic Radio Dramas: Antônio Callado and the BBC Latin American Service during and after WW2 (Pittsburgh UP, 2023).

Martina Spohr

Martina Spohr is Associate Professor, Undergraduate Program Coordinator in Social Sciences, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Estudos Históricos, and coordinator of the Laboratory of Studies on State, Power, and Society (LAEPS) at the School of Social Sciences FGV CPDOC. She is a historian whose research focuses on the relationships between entrepreneurs and political regimes, both in Brazil and abroad.

She was awarded the Young Female Scientist grant from the Rio de Janeiro Research Council (FAPERJ) for the project ‘Entrepreneurs and Dictatorship: “Private entrepreneurial Diplomacy” in Brazil-U.S. Foreign Relations (1974-1979)’.

Thais Blank

Thais Blank is Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at the School of Social Sciences at FGV CPDOC, where she contributes to the BA Program in History, Politics, and Cultural Heritage. She researches visual culture, focusing on the preservation and circulation of archival images. In 2022, she was awarded the Young Scientist of Our State grant from FAPERJ, and in 2023, she became a CNPq Productivity Fellow, coordinating the project “New Perspectives on the Archive: Visuality, Education, and Dissemination in the Women's Archives of CPDOC”. She is the Coordinator of the Visual Culture Studies Laboratory (LECV CPDOC) and co-founder of the Archive Image Researchers Network (REPIA)."