Nicola Miller is Professor of Latin American History and Head of the History Department. She is interested in intellectual history, cultural history and international history - and particularly in thinking about how these different sub-disciplines can be brought together and in the insights to be gained from inter-disciplinary work and transnational approaches. She has published widely in all three fields, particularly on the history of intellectuals in Latin America. She teaches an MA course on Nationalism and National Identity in Latin America, and recently co-edited a special issue of the journal Nations and Nationalism on Latin American nationalism (April 2006).
Prof Miller is also working on the AHRC-funded project 'The American Way of Life: Images of the United States in Nineteenth-century Europe and Latin America'.
Her areas of research supervision include the history of modern Latin America (nineteenth and twentieth centuries), especially US relations with Latin America, issues related to nationalism and national identity, as well as the history of intellectuals and culture.
About this lecture:
The old joke about Brazil is that it is the country of the future, and always will be. There are signs, however, that the Brazilian economy is finally achieving the stability necessary for it to fulfil its potential. What is particularly intriguing is that this has happened under the leadership of Lula, the former print-worker, union leader and founder of the innovative Workers' Party, who is now in his second term as elected president of Brazil. To what extent is it possible for a radical politician to deliver on commitments to the poor in the context of a global neo-liberal agenda?
