I began studying the history of Iberia and Latin America as an undergraduate exchange student at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. My book Tropical Versailles (2001) examined the ways in which the transfer of the Portuguese royal court to Rio de Janeiro in 1808 transformed understandings of monarchy and empire. My current research examines empire, wealth and difference in the eighteenth-century Brazil. At Seton Hall, I teach courses on Latin America’s history.