Sed Miles, PhD
Scholar, Artist, Cultural Strategist

Currently available for US-based, remote, consulting, academic, and project-based work
Email: sedrickmiles@gmail.com‍ ‍Website: sedmiles.com

Professional Profile

Dr. Sed Miles is a scholar, artist, educator, and cultural strategist working across higher education, philanthropy, public humanities, archives, and community development. His work connects universities, foundations, artists, community organizations, and international partners through teaching, research, public programs, fellowships, publications, and community-centered cultural memory projects.

He is the founder of Atlantic Archives Global Education, a transnational education and cultural memory initiative rooted in Brazil, the U.S. South, and Black Atlantic networks. His professional background combines university teaching, nonprofit leadership, philanthropic strategy, international program design, digital archives, visual storytelling, and community-engaged research.

Sed works with universities, cultural institutions, foundations, nonprofits, and community organizations on teaching, public humanities, cultural strategy, archives, international education, research, and project-based leadership.

Core Areas

  • University teaching and curriculum design

  • Public humanities and cultural programming

  • Community archives and digital preservation

  • International education and study abroad design

  • Philanthropy and nonprofit strategy

  • Program management and partnership development

  • Community-engaged research

  • Black Atlantic, Afro-Brazilian, and Latin American Studies

  • Visual storytelling and multimedia documentation

  • Grant writing, editorial leadership, and public scholarship

Current and Recent Roles

Adjunct Lecturer
James Madison University
2025 to present

  • Instructor of Record for Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies, with teaching focused on Brazil, the Caribbean, the U.S. South, race, culture, social movements, and transnational public life.

  • Develops course materials connecting historical analysis, visual culture, community archives, and contemporary political questions.

  • Teaches students to understand Latin America and the Black Atlantic through interdisciplinary methods, public scholarship, and comparative social analysis.

Founder and Director
Atlantic Archives Global Education
2018 to present

  • Founded and directs a transnational education and cultural memory initiative connecting Brazil, the United States, and Ghana.

  • Designed fellowships, workshops, public lectures, study abroad experiences, language programs, digital publications, and community archive projects with artists, scholars, organizers, and cultural institutions.

  • Built partnerships with universities, cultural workers, community organizations, and philanthropic networks.

  • Managed international teams, budgets, travel logistics, translation workflows, public programming, media production, and publication schedules.

  • Created paid learning and research opportunities for emerging Afro-Brazilian scholars, artists, translators, and community archivists.

  • Designed and facilitated more than 20 international convenings connecting universities, cultural organizations, funders, and social movement leaders.

  • Developed archival and educational projects that support cultural preservation, public scholarship, and community leadership across borders.

Selected Leadership Experience

Strategy and Knowledge Management Officer
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

  • Led learning, strategy, and community engagement work related to educational disparities, participatory grantmaking, stakeholder communication, and organizational learning.

  • Developed internal systems to assess program impact, stakeholder engagement, and strategic alignment.

  • Advised leadership and program teams on community-driven philanthropy, learning systems, and equitable grantmaking strategy.

Strategy Philanthropy Fellow
The Proteus Fund

  • Designed participatory knowledge management strategies and contributed to equity-centered frameworks for grantmaking and community engagement.

  • Supported fellowship program design focused on cultivating leaders of color in philanthropy.

  • Teaching, Research, and Public Scholarship

Researcher and Public Humanities Project Lead
Tulane University, Atlantic Archives, and Partner Institutions

  • Conducted doctoral research on community visual archives, Black Atlantic identity, Afro-Brazilian cultural politics, and public memory in Northeast Brazil.

  • Designed and led field-based research in Salvador, Bahia, combining ethnography, oral history, visual analysis, archival work, community partnerships, and public scholarship.

  • Developed community archive projects, workshops, public programs, and collaborative publications with Brazilian artists, archivists, educators, cultural workers, and university partners.

  • Built learning experiences in Brazil for students, researchers, study abroad groups, cultural workers, and nonprofit professionals.

  • Created Portuguese language and cultural education programs connecting language learning with Afro-Brazilian history, everyday life, politics, and cultural practice.

  • Served as Instructor of Record for Introduction to Latin American Studies at Tulane University.

  • Produced multilingual publications, public lectures, cultural programs, and collaborative research outputs for academic, community, and public audiences.

Education

PhD, Latin American Studies
Tulane University, 2025
Dissertation: Memories of the Working Class Black Atlantic: Community Visual Archives in Northeast Brazil

MA, Research Psychology
The New School University
Emphasis: Research Methods, Culture, and Academic Performance

BA, Educational Psychology
Morehouse College
Emphasis: Social Psychology and Education

Selected Fellowships and Awards

  • Fulbright Research Fellowship, Brazil

  • David L. Boren Fellowship, Institute of International Education

  • Mellon Graduate Program Fellowship, Tulane Center for Public Service

  • Center for Islam in the Contemporary World Research Fellowship

  • Tulane University School of Liberal Arts Graduate Fellowship

Selected Publications and Editorial Work

“Building Transnational Insurgent Black Archives,” NACLA Report on the Americas

“From Extraction to Co-Creation: Fellowship as Commons as Transdisciplinary Tool in Salvador, Bahia,” journal article under revision

“Visual Ancestralities: Material Memory and Digital Archives in Afro-Brazilian Terreiros,” journal article under revision

“The Colorful Tradition of Mardi Gras Indians,” Fashioning The Self Magazine

Editor in Chief, Kora Journal
Multilingual publication featuring cultural and international perspectives on culture, politics, memory, and community life.

Contributor, The Hub News
Cultural analysis, historical commentary, and writing on Brazil, the U.S. South, Afro-diasporic culture, and contemporary social movements.

Selected Academic and Public Programs

Speaker and International Programming Coordinator
James Madison University African, African American, and African Diaspora Studies Conference

Organized and contributed to programming on Black solidarities in Brazil and the United States, including international panels, public conversations, and academic partnerships.

Conference Presenter
Brazilian Studies Association, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora, Latin American Studies Association, and other academic and public humanities venues.

Global Conference Participant
AWID Global Feminism Conference, Bangkok, Thailand

Supported international collaboration, cultural documentation, and public writing connected to feminist organizing, social movements, and Black diasporic networks.


Languages and Skills

Languages: English and Portuguese

Research: qualitative research, ethnography, oral history, archival research, visual analysis, survey design, fieldwork, community-based documentation

Teaching: curriculum design, university instruction, workshop facilitation, study abroad programming, online teaching, public lectures

Program Leadership: strategic planning, budgeting, team coordination, partnership development, grant writing, international logistics, project management

Media and Digital Work: digital archives, multimedia production, editorial workflows, public scholarship, digital storytelling, publication planning

Professional Focus

Sed is available for university teaching, visiting scholar opportunities, public humanities programs, cultural strategy, nonprofit and foundation consulting, research projects, archives and memory work, international education design, public speaking, and project-based leadership.