Olá! Welcome to my website! =)

I’m Bruna, a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Missouri. I was born in São José dos Campos, a city in Brazil with a strong military influence, which shaped my personal and academic interests. I’m also a first-generation student, and one of my priorities is sharing information about higher education with those from similar backgrounds.

My research focuses on violence in Latin America. I seek to understand the institutional characteristics in a democracy that allow the emergence of parallel groups formed by public security agents. Additionally, I am interested in operational issues within the security forces and the human rights violations they promote.

Within this theme, my interests include:

• Transitional justice

• Regional characteristics that facilitate violence by security forces

• Corruption within security forces that leads to the formation of parallel groups (militias and paramilitary groups)

• Repression promoted by parallel groups