Dr. Maria Cecilia Oliveira
Research Group Leader
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Maria Cecilia Oliveira is head of the transdisciplinary research group "Democratic Governance and Ecopolitical Transformations" (EcoPol) at RIFS Potsdam. She is currently working with the EcoPol group on a transdisciplinary case study in the Amazon Basin. Within the Amazon Basin, research areas include rights of nature, environmental crises, indigenous activism, knowledge production, populism, and climate policy development in the context of the Paris Agreement. Oliveira previously led the Implementing the Paris Agreement (2017-2018) and Democratic re-configurations of sustainability transformations (2019-2020) groups. She is also co-president of the Amazon Section of the Latin American Studies Association.
Oliveira researches the relationship between democracy and ecopolitics. She focuses on topics such as climate change regimes, environmental justice, ecopolitical transterritoriality, and science and technology studies. Another area of interest is science communication, aiming to connect art and politics through dialogue forums, documentaries, podcasts, performances, and lectures.
Oliveira received her PhD in international relations from the Pontifical Catholic University in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2016. She wrote part of her dissertation as a Fulbright Scholar at the Columbia University's Earth Institute (2013-2014) in New York, on the topic of "Millennium Development Goals: secured life and planetary governmentality." Prior to that, she completed a Master's in International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University in Sao Paulo and another Master's as an Alban Scholar at the University of Padua, Italy, in Critical Criminology and Social Prevention.
Groups
- 2011-2016: PhD in International Relations with the thesis - Millennium Development Goals: secure life in planetary governmentality, Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
- 2010-present: researcher at Ecopolitics Observatory and Nucleo de Sociabilidade Libertaria (NUSOL), Political Science Department, Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
- 2008: Master's in Critical Criminology, Prevention and Social Security, Political Science Department, Padova University, Italy
- 2006-2010: Master's in International Relations, Political Science Department, Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Climate change
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- development studies
- global governance
- theories and methods of diplomacy and conflict studies
- international environmental law
- South-North analyses
- Latin America studies
- international organisations
- international relations
- security
- political theory
- governmentality studies
- genealogy
Publications at the RIFS
Publications prior to joining the RIFS
- Open data between environmental protection and counter-activism: The case of satellite data on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Earth System Governance (2022), Jan/Feb. special issue: "AI & digitalization", forthcoming (with Leandro Siqueira)
- Same same but different? How democratically elected rightwing populist leaders politicize climate change, Environmental Politics 30 (2022), Feb./March special issue "Mitigating climate change in times of populism", forthcoming (with Jens Marquardt & Markus Lederer)
- Etnografia do ambientalismo corporativo: notas para uma anthropologia do estado de morte que marca o campo dos mega-emprendimentos [Ethnography of corporate environmentalism: Notes on an anthropology of the death marking the field of mega-projects], Anthropolitica 49 (2020), forthcoming (with Rafael Costa)
- Global goals and urban development: The territorial effects of implementing the MDGs in Brazil, in: H. Aust, A. Du Plessis (eds.), The Globalization of Urban Governance: Legal Perspectives on Sustainable Development Goal 11, London: Routledge, 2019, 173-185
- Objetivos de Desenvolvimento do Milênio: vida segura e a governmentalidade planetária [Millennium Development Goals: secure life and planetary governmentality], Sao Paulo: PUC, 2016 [publication of PhD thesis]
- Entre a penalização e o desenvolvimento: As políticas de prevenção da delinquência juvenil na América Latina [Between penalization and development: Juvenile delinquency prevention policies in Latin America], Verve 26 (2014), 123-154
- M. Ecco! Anarquia e Movimento [Anarchy and Movement], Verve 19 (2011), 197-200
- Rebeldes e perigosos [Rebels and dangerous], in: T. Rodrigues, C. Marcucci (eds.), Notas Internacionais, Sao Paulo: Desatino, 2006, 73-94
- Securitizing the poor through social street level bureaucracies, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting 2016, 2-5 June 2016, New Orleans
- Security and Sustainable Development in Brazil, Freie Universität Berlin, PhD Conference on Sustainable Environmental Policies and Economy, 3-4 July 2015, Berlin
- Visual cartographies of poverty in Brazil and the Millennium Development Goals, Harvard Institute for Global Law and Policy, Heterodox Traditions conference, 1-2 June 2015, Cambridge MA
- Zeroing in on Hunger, Jahrestagung des Arbeitskreises für Überseeische Verfassungsvergleichung, 4-5 July 2014, Hamburg
- Security Apparatus and Sustainable Development in Brazil, Global Governance of Development, Universita degli Studi della Tuscia, 12-13 June 2014, Viterbo, Italy
- Ecopolitics and heterotopias: From the Brazilian ecological dream to the sustainable development era, Columbia University New York, Center for Brazilian Studies Seminar Series, 27 March 2014, New York, USA
- ALBAN - EU High-level Scholarships for Latin America, Padova University, 2008-2009
- Fulbright/CAPES, Columbia University/Earth Institute, 2013-2014