Bryan Pitts

Assistant Director, Latin American Institute
315 Portola Plaza
Box 951447
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1447
Tel: 310-825-4571
bpitts@international.ucla.edu
Keywords: Latin America, Politics, Gender, Brazil, History

Bryan Pitts is a historian of 20th century Brazil. He received an M.A. from Vanderbilt University (2006) and a Ph.D. in Latin American History from Duke University (2013). He came to UCLA in 2020, after two years as Associate Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Indiana University. His book, Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship (Oakland: University of California Press, 2023), explains the fall of Brazil’s 1964-85 military regime in light of the changes it wrought on civilian political elites and their attitudes toward democracy. He has also published articles or book chapters on representations of race in Brazilian gay media, the sexual and romantic experiences of gay Brazilian men who travel abroad as tourists, US-Brazil relations, and the use of audio recordings as historical sources. He has written on contemporary Brazilian politics for media outlets such as O Estado de S. Paulo, El País, Jacobin, NACLA, and Brasil Wire. 

Bryan's responsibilities as Assistant Director include grant writing, administration, and reporting; supporting the activities of the LAI's affiliated centers, including the Center for Brazilian Studies; coordinating the LAI's partnership with the Southern California Association of Latin American Studies at California State University Los Angeles; facilitating collaborations with universities and other institutions in Latin America and beyond; and overseeing the LAI's budget. He is also involved with Latin American Studies on a national scale, serving as Treasurer of the the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs.