I study how China projects influence beyond its borders, through cinema, media partnerships, cultural institutions, and strategic communication. My work sits at the intersection of international relations theory and real-world policy, asking how emerging powers use culture to reshape global perceptions and governance.

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This question has taken me from Brasília to Beijing to Charlottesville. I completed my doctoral research at the University of Brasília (UnB), with visiting positions at Beijing Foreign Studies University and the University of Virginia, experiences that gave me a genuinely transnational perspective on the dynamics I study. My thesis, China and the Cinema: Soft Power, Strategic Narratives, and Relations with the United States, was awarded Best Thesis in the Humanities at UnB in 2024 and received an Honorable Mention at the ABRI national award.

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Beyond the academy, I have contributed directly to Brazil's foreign policy agenda, working on the country's G20, BRICS, and COP30 presidencies, serving as an analyst for the UNDP, and currently consulting for the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the history and future of Brazilian cultural diplomacy. I am also co-founder of the Observa China network and an editor of Mundorama magazine.

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My research has been published in leading journals including Communication and the Public (SAGE), the Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, and the Chinese Journal of Communication, and cited in major outlets such as O Globo, Folha de S. Paulo, and the South China Morning Post.