Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice

Eduarda Lira de Araujo is a scholar of Afro-Latin American history. She earned her Ph.D. in African and African American Studies from Harvard University (2026), where she also received an M.A. in History. She holds a B.A. in Africana Studies from Brown University (2015).

Lira de Araujo’s research focuses on Afro-Brazilian intellectual, political and environmental history in connection with African and Afro-diasporic spiritual practices. She is currently completing her book manuscript, “Enchanting History: Black Healers, Sacred Ecologies, and the Making of Modern Brazil (1850s–1920s).” Her scholarship has been supported by the American Historical Association, Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, among others.