John French is an historian of modern Latin America with a specialization in Brazil. His current book project, Lula's Politics of Cunning: From Trade Unionism to the Presidency in Brazil, draws on a multi-year international research project on “Nurturing Hope, Deepening Democracy, and Combating Inequalities: An Assessment of Lula’s Presidency” that he co-organized (preliminary results were published in 2012).  He has written a number of other articles on Lula, Latin American left turns, and working class history in Brazil. His last book, Drowning in Laws: Labor Law and Brazilian Political Culture, was published by University of North Carolina Press in 2004.

Since Fall 2014, he has been co-Director of the Humanities Lab Global Brazil: Culture, Nature, Politics.