Daniel McDonald

Daniel McDonald received his PhD in history from Brown University in 2020. His book project, Peripheral Citizenship: The Right to the City in Twentieth-Century São Paulo explores the grassroots constructions of citizenship that accompanied the rise of the megacity in Brazil. The mass migration of millions from rural areas of Brazil to São Paulo’s urban periphery created crisis conditions just as Brazil entered twenty-one years of military dictatorship (1964-1985). Drawing on an innovative digital humanities project, oral histories, and personal collections, this project shows that migrant women made everyday life central to the struggle against authoritarianism as well as to the shaping of new rights during the transition to democratic rule. His broader research interests center on the intersection of urbanization, migration, citizenship, social welfare, and gender with an emphasis on digital humanities methods. Prior to joining the Mahindra Humanities Center, McDonald's research has been supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and the Tinker Foundation. His article on the origins of informality in Brazil’s first modern planned city, Belo Horizonte, is forthcoming in the Journal of Urban History.