Luciana de Souza Leão

Luciana de Souza Leão is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology department. Before receiving her PhD from Columbia University in 2019, Luciana received a B.A. in Economics from Puc-Rio and a M.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she studied different dynamics associated to racial and political inequalities in Brazil. 

Luciana is a political and comparative sociologist with broad interests in knowledge-making processes, social inequalities, and the state. Her most recent work has appeared in the American Journal of Economics, British Journal of Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Historical Social Research, International Journal of Sociology, Theory and Society, among others. She is currently working on a book project, Experimenting on the Poor: The Politics of Social Policy Evaluations in Brazil and Mexico, which examines how politics, measurement practices, and expertise shape anti-poverty programs in Latin America.