Research in Progress

I am presenting my current research in progress, "Producing São Paulo: Memory, Place, & Power," at the Conference of Latin American Geography (CLAG) in Puerto Vallarta on 9 January 2026. 

Abstract: 

This research examines the intersection of place, memory, and neoliberal transformation in São Paulo, focusing on how the city’s spatial fabric reflects both the authoritarian legacy of Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985) and the subsequent restructuring under neoliberal urbanism. Using a grid of spatial practices, the analysis situates São Paulo as a contested site where the production of space during the dictatorship—through securitized campuses, repressive policing of public squares, and infrastructural megaprojects—both constrained and enabled new urban imaginaries. 

The study then considers how neoliberal reforms, privatization, and entrepreneurial urban governance have reshaped the landscape, often erasing or commodifying spaces of memory tied to student resistance, labor organizing, and state violence. By juxtaposing sites of repression—such as university precincts, detention centers, and protest squares—with contemporary spaces of capital accumulation and memorialization, the research highlights the uneven ways memory is inscribed onto the urban environment. 

Methodologically, this project combines archival work, field observation, and critical spatial analysis to interrogate how historical geographies of authoritarian control persist within, and are transformed by, neoliberal spatial logics. The paper argues that attending to place and memory within São Paulo’s neoliberal present not only illuminates the city’s fractured histories but also reveals the enduring power of spatial practices in shaping collective remembrance and forgetting.