Frederico Freitas

Frederico Freitas is an Associate Professor of Digital and Latin American History at North Carolina State University, where he also serves as a core member of the Visual Narrative Cluster. His research focuses on environmental and urban history in modern Brazil, particularly the intersection of environmental policies and social change. He earned his Ph.D. in Latin American History from Stanford University in 2016, with a dissertation examining national parks at the Brazil-Argentina border. Before academia, he worked as an art director in São Paulo, Brazil, specializing in motion graphics and design.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Latin American History, Stanford University, 2016
• M.A. in Latin American History, Stanford University, 2011
• B.A. in History, University of São Paulo, 2008

Research Interests: Latin American environmental history, urban studies, digital humanities, and the history of national parks. His current book project, Concrete Tropics: An Environmental History of Brazil’s Modernist Capital, explores the environmental and urban development of Brasília.

Awards and Grants:

• Warren Dean Memorial Prize (2023) for Nationalizing Nature: Iguazu Falls and National Parks at the Brazil-Argentina Border
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2019-2020)
• National Humanities Center Fellowship (2023-2024)

Recent Work: Contributions include co-editing The Interior: Recentering Brazilian History (2025, University of Texas Press) and authoring Nationalizing Nature (2021), which redefined understandings of Latin American conservation. His interdisciplinary work uses digital tools to analyze urban and environmental change.

Teaching and Advising: Teaches courses on Latin American history, digital history, and urban studies. Advises Ph.D. and MA students in public history and related fields.

Labs and Collaborations: Co-investigator of the Urban Panorama project, applying machine learning to assess urban dynamics. Member of NC State’s Visual Narrative Initiative, bridging engineering and humanities disciplines.