Roberta S. Pamplona
Hi/Olá! I am a PhD candidate in Sociology with a collaborative degree in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. My pronouns are she/ela. My work as an educator, sociologist, and activist is inspired by Eve Tuck’s theorization on desire-based research (2009): “frameworks concerned with understanding complexity, contradiction, and the self-determination of lived lives” (p. 416).
My areas of specialization are feminist and critical theory, law & society, critical criminology, political sociology, urban violence, and Latin American studies. My work has been recently published in the journals Gender & Society and Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society
I research the recent criminalization of feminicídio (a law addressing the killing of women for gendered reasons) in Brazil and the politics around it as the root of inquiry to answer broader questions: 1) how do feminist discourses and practices on violence influence political mobilizations?; 2) how do activists variously respond to the diffusion of their ideas?; and 3) how do economic and racialized structures shape these discourses and practices on violence?
By studying the feminist politics involved in the making of feminicídio in Brazil, I hope to contribute to ongoing discussions about the impact of feminist ideas and practices in the Global South, the overlap of carceral and welfare projects, and the intersections of race and gender in feminist activism against violence. My dissertation is funded by the Vanier Graduate Scholarship and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship programs.
I am a research assistant for the SSHRC Insight Grant (2021-2026) Bringing Democracy into the Law: Urban Inequalities and Struggles over Rights and Fairness in the Brazilian Justice System coordinated by Prof. Luisa Farah Schwartzman. I am also a research assistant for the project Transforming the City from the Favelas and Colonias Populares: Women and Embodied Urbanizations in Latin America coordinated by Prof. Anne-Marie Veillette at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
Before coming to Canada to pursue my PhD, I worked as a volunteer in different grassroots organizations and as a research assistant on diverse projects related to violence and the criminal legal system in Brazil.
I grew up as a settler in Southern Brazil, moving between Palhoça (where my family is from) and Porto Alegre (where I studied and worked). I enjoy reading novels and memoirs about millennials living under capitalism, baking, biking, and doing pottery.