I’m a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Brown University and a Research Associate at the Civil Conflict and Democratic Erosion Lab at the Watson School for International and Public Affairs. My primary field is Comparative Politics, with a regional focus on Latin America—particularly Brazil, where I am originally from. My research centers on land politics and its political, welfare, and environmental consequences for rural communities and beyond. 

In my dissertation, I investigate how land titling policies can be leveraged by political elites to displace and demobilize marginalized communities in agricultural frontier regions. I develop a new framework to understand the conditions under which this occurs and examine the broader implications for grassroots rural organization, access to state services, and environmental governance. My empirical focus is on land reform settlements in the Brazilian Amazon, and I employ a mixed-methods approach that combines quasi-experimental designs, original survey data, and in-depth interviews.

In parallel, I am also engaged in a collaborative project that explores the roots and consequences of violence against environmental defenders and social activists also in the Brazilian Amazon. As part of this project, I personally led the construction of a fine-grained georeferenced dataset that systematically classifies and maps incidents of violence related to land and environmental conflicts in the region between 1997 and 2024. I also spearheaded the design and implementation of an original, large-scale survey conducted across 195 rural communities in the state of Pará. 

The survey collected unique data on recent episodes of violence over the past five years, as well as detailed information on the political structure and organizational dynamics of these communities, which also contributes directly to my dissertation research. These data collection efforts have laid the groundwork for several working papers, exploring topics such as the relationship between violence and campaign finance, the effects of mining and infrastructure projects, and public support for extrajudicial punishment in the region.

While I am deeply committed to empirical research, I am equally passionate about teaching. At Brown, I served as a Teaching Assistant for four semesters and earned a Teaching Seminar Certificate from the Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Before beginning my doctoral studies, I worked as a political journalist for local news outlets and as a communications manager at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, in Brazil. I hold a BA in Journalism and Political Science from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil, and a MA in Political Science from Brown University.