• Dr. Romo received her Ph.D. in History from Harvard University in Latin American history.  She is a historian of Modern Brazil, with a focus on Urban History.

    Romo’s research has focused on changing ideas of race, and visual representations of race, in late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century urban Brazil.  Her geographic area of interest centers on the Northeast state of Bahia and its capital, Salvador, a pivotal arena of the Black Atlantic.  Currently, she is moving beyond Bahia to work on urban history in a co-authored book with Dr. Jane Mangan, Professor of History at Davidson College.  The book, Urban Lineages: The City in Latin American History (Routledge, forthcoming) uses six cities as case studies, with each one representing a major historical development or theme across time.

    Romo’s central research concern has been to examine the dynamics by which the city of Salvador became known and celebrated for its Black culture.  She has published on this topic in leading journals such as the Journal of Latin American Studies (Cambridge University) and has participated in the creation of a visiting art exhibition sponsored by the Getty at UCLA’s Fowler Museum.  Her first book, Brazil's Living Museum: Race, Reform and Tradition in Bahia (University of North Carolina Press, 2010) examined this question in a variety of arenas, from medical debates at the turn of the century, to museum collections, to developments in the anthropology of the diaspora.  Her second book project takes up where the first project left off.  Selling Black Brazil: Race, Nation, and Visual Culture in Salvador, Bahia (University of Texas Press, 2022) examines the creation of a visual iconography of Blackness that developed in Salvador during the 1950s.  

    Selling Black Brazil has been recognized by the Latin American Studies Association (best humanities book on Brazil honorable mention 2023); and the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (shortlisted for best book by a senior scholar in 2023).  In addition, Afro-Bahian novelist Itamar Vieira Junior recommended the book as essential reading for New York Times readers.

    Romo’s teaching has focused on questions of gender, ethnicity and race in Latin America, as well as the development and shaping of cities in the region.

    Dr. Romo comes from a long career in the history department at Texas State University, where she won awards for her teaching and mentoring.  She joined the Trinity faculty in 2025.  

    • Ph.D. Harvard University
    • M.A. Harvard University
    • B.A. Princeton University

    Books:

    • Urban Lineages: The City in Latin American History. Coauthored with Dr. Jane Mangan.  Tópicos series (Routledge, forthcoming).
    • Selling Black Brazil: Race, Nation, and Visual Culture in Salvador, Bahia.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 2022. 
    • Brazil’s Living Museum: Race, Reform and Tradition in Bahia. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

     

    Articles and book chapters:

    •  “From the ‘Romance of Industry’ to the ‘National Soul’: Promoting Travel in the Pan American Union.” In The Business of Leisure: Tourism History in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Andrew Wood. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2021.
    • “Rethinking Race and Culture in Brazil’s First Afro-Brazilian Congress of 1934.” Journal of Latin American Studies 39, no. 1 (2007): 31-54.

    Dr. Romo’s area of specialty is Latin America and her research examines race in modern Brazil. She is also interested in the broader African diaspora in Latin America, with a particular focus on questions of race and inequality.  Her interests span intellectual history, the histories of visual culture, and urban studies.  

    • FYE Childhood
    • History of Brazil
    • Senior Seminar for Latin American History: focus on San Antonio

    • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research Fellowship, 2017.
    • President of Brazilian Studies Committee 2017, Conference of Latin American History (elected).