As a site for extensive research at the core of ethnomusicology, Brazil occupies an ambiguous position. On one hand, Brazil is commonly framed as a colonial Other, subjected to extractive economies of music and knowledge. On the other hand, Brazil is characterized as a cosmopolitan musical center with a massive commercial circuit that exports musics and rhythms, such as samba, capoeira, and Carnaval. This ambiguity is at once enforced and challenged by the circulation of musicians and music scholars who complicate the nation’s meanings as they navigate institutional, political, and socioeconomic boundaries. Drawing from their experiences researching in or about Brazil—on topics including racial and diasporic identities, religion, Brazilian ethnomusicology, and contemporary musical markets—each participant will offer a different angle in imagining Brazil and its music while reflecting on their academic positionality. Guiding questions include the following: What does it mean to study the country from the United States, particularly considering the long history of US imperialism and the creation of disciplinary fields and geographical imagination around Latin America? How do music studies and its institutions reproduce colonial dynamics for Latin American scholars seeking inclusion in the US academy, and what are the stakes for these scholars? How can music scholars examine musical practices in Brazil without reifying the parameters of the nation-state? Six participants whose academic trajectories transit across US and Brazilian borders will respond to these questions with short presentations.