Thayse Leal Lima

Dr. Thayse Leal Lima is an Associate Professor and Advisor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Maryland, and an Affiliate Faculty member of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center. She serves as Equity Partner for Faculty Searches in the College of Arts and Humanities. Her research focuses on Brazilian and Latin American literature from the 19th century to the present, emphasizing transnationalism, intellectual history, and world literature frameworks. She directs the Portuguese and Brazilian Studies Program.

Dr. Lima holds a Ph.D. from Brown University. Her work bridges Brazilian studies with broader Latin American contexts, challenging traditional literary hierarchies through analyses of transnational exchanges. Key projects include repositioning Brazil within Latin American cultural paradigms and examining decolonial translation practices.

Her research trends highlight:

• Deconstructing center-periphery dynamics in literary circulation
• Recovering Cold War-era South-South intellectual networks
• Reimagining world literature through Lusophone and peripheral perspectives

Publications include her 2021 monograph Latino Americanizando o Brasil, co-edited special journal issues, and articles in Journal of World Literature and Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies.