Colette Perold

Colette Perold serves as Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where her research critically examines the nexus between media technologies, labor dynamics, and U.S. foreign policy formation in Latin America, with concentrated focus on Brazil's historical relationship with U.S. IT corporations.

Her academic foundation includes a PhD from New York University's Department of Media, Culture and Communication. Prior professional experience encompasses labor organizing and editorial work for the NACLA Report on the Americas, a quarterly journal dedicated to Latin American politics and social movements.

Perold's scholarship employs business history of computing methodologies to analyze how multinational technology firms shape geopolitical priorities, particularly through case studies of U.S. foreign policy engagement during Brazil's authoritarian period. Her work reveals systemic connections between corporate expansion strategies and diplomatic frameworks.

Her publications demonstrate consistent thematic focus on technology's role in U.S.-Latin American relations, exemplified by award-winning research on IBM's historical operations in Brazil that exposes corporate influences on policy formation under authoritarian regimes.

Her exceptional contributions have been honored with:

• 2021 Mahoney Prize for outstanding article in computing history
• 2022-2023 Brooke Hindle Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2019-2020 Tomash Fellowship from Charles Babbage Institute

Research funding has been secured from the Hagley Library, Tinker Foundation, and Charles Babbage Institute, supporting projects that bridge historical analysis with contemporary implications for technology governance and labor policy in international contexts.