The King's Brazil Institute is happy to announce it's first Annual Writing Retreat.

Students are invited to join for a full day of activities and talks to support academic writing. Guests will include Professor Leigh A Payne (University of Oxford), Dr Francesca Lessa (UCL), Dr Flavio Eiro (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and journalist Richard Bourne.

Discussions will include book, papers and dissertation writing, and edited volume organisation.

The event is free to attend for all students but seats are limited and will be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis. Please only register if you are able to attend. 

About our speakers

Professor Leigh A. Payne

Leigh is Professor of Sociology and Latin America at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. She is the author of a number of books, book chapters, and articles on transitional justice. Among her publications in the last five years are: “Confessions to Intimate Violence: FARC Confessions to Sexual Violations in the Colombian Conflict” (2024); The Right against Rights in Latin America (2023); Understanding Collaborators (2022); Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America (2021); and Transitional Justice and Corporate Accountability from Below: Deploying Archimedes’ Lever (2021).

Dr Francesca Lessa

Francesca is Associate Professor in International Relations of the Americas at University College London (UCL), where she is affiliated to the UCL - Institute of the Americas. Previously, between 2011 and 2023, she held various roles at the University of Oxford, including Departmental Lecturer in Latin American Studies and Development (2020-2023) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow (2016-2020). Francesca earned a PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2010.

Richard Bourne

Richard is an author and retired journalist, who was formerly education correspondent of The Guardian as well as a senior fellow at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies. Richard is author of several books including Garibaldi in South America – an Exploration, Lula of Brazil – the Story so Far, Assault on the Amazon, Getúlio Vargas of Brazil: Sphinx of the Pampas, and Political Leaders of Latin America.

Dr Flávio Eiró

Flávio is assistant professor of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a political ethnographer researching anti-poverty policies, policy implementation and the politics of identities, with a special focus on Brazil. His current research focuses on identity politics and electoral competition in Brazil. His research on citizenship, policy implementation and the relations between voters and political candidates has been published in journals such as Qualitative Sociology, Latin American Politics and Society, International Journal of Law in Context et Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.

Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos

Andreza is the Director of King’s Brazil Institute. She completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews and holds a master’s degree in Social Sciences jointly awarded by the University of Freiburg, the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban and JNU, in New Delhi, India. Having studied in Brazil, Germany, South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom, Andreza writes about Brazilian politics and city governance comparatively. Before joining King’s, she was a lecturer at the University of Oxford and director of the Brazilian Studies Programme (2018-2023).

Professor Karl Erik Schøllhammer

Karl is currently Rio Branco Chair at the King's Brazil Institute. Karl holds an MA in Nordic Literature and a PhD in Semiotics and Latin American Literature from Aarhus University (Denmark). He has taught at the Aarhus University, at the Federal University of Brasília, and has been Obel Guest Professor at the Aalborg University, Denmark. He is professor at the Pontifície Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) at the Department of Language and Literature where he teaches comparative literature, Brazilian literature, arts and culture, and literary theory.