Gabriel de Avilez Rocha

Gabriel de Avilez Rocha is the Vasco da Gama Assistant Professor of History and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. from New York University (2016) and a B.A. from Harvard University (2008). His research focuses on social and environmental histories of colonialism and slavery in the early modern Atlantic world, emphasizing linkages between Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Iberia. He currently works on The Atlantic Acceleration: Empires and Uprisings from the Global Commons, 1400-1560, examining how ecological struggles shaped colonial expansion.

Research Interests:

• Early modern Iberian empires
• Black Atlantic studies
• Environmental history/eco-criticism
• Microhistory methods
• Community engagement initiatives

Teaching: Courses include Global Ocean History, Colonial Encounters in the Atlantic, and Environmental History of Latin America.
His work appears in Colonial Latin American Review, Early American Studies, and William & Mary Quarterly.