Mila Burns is Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College and of History at the Graduate Center, CUNY, where she is associate director of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies (CLACLS). A journalist for more than twenty years in Brazil and New York, she is the author of Dictatorship Across Borders: Brazil, Chile, and the South American Cold War (University of North Carolina Press, 2025), Dona Ivone Lara’s Sorriso Negro (Bloomsbury, 2019 and Editora Cobogó, 2021), and Nasci para Sonhar e Cantar: Dona Ivone Lara, a Mulher no Samba (Record, 2009). She is also a sought-after public speaker and moderator, with talks and conversations at venues including the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Columbia University, and the Americas Society. Her TEDx talk, “The Power of Not Knowing” (TEDxCUNY, 2023), has been watched more than 25,000 times.
