Professor Anthony Pereira

Professor Anthony Pereira graduate from the University of Sussex in 1982 with a BA in Politics and then in 1986 obtained an MA in Government from Harvard University. His PhD dissertation at Harvard, defended in 1991, focused on the role of rural trade unions in northeast Brazil in expanding democratic rights in two different periods, the early 1960s before the military coup of 1964 and the late 1970s and 1980s, when Brazil’s authoritarian regime was ending. This research led to the publication of the book 'The End of the Peasantry: The Rural Labor Movement in Northeast Brazil, 1961-1988' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997).

Professor Pereira’s next major research project was on the treatment of dissidents and opponents by the authoritarian regimes in Brazil (1964-85), Argentina (1976-83) and Chile (1973-90). Professor Pereira argued that Brazil’s more judicial approach resulted in an “authoritarian legalism” that bound judicial and military actors within the military court system and shaped the treatment of political prisoners but also created an official transcript that made a rupture with this approach more difficult after the transition to democracy. This research resulted in the book Political (In)justice: Authoritarianism and the Rule of Law in Brazil, Chile and Argentina (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005) which was published in Brazil as Ditadura e Repressão (Paz e Terra, 2010).

Before joining King’s in 2010, where he is also a Professor of International Development, Professor Pereira held positions at the New School for Social Research in New York City, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the Boston area, and Tulane University in New Orleans, all in the United States, and the University of East Anglia in the UK.

He has also been a visiting professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, and the International Relations Institute of the University of São Paulo in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. His recent books include (with Lauro Mattei) The Brazilian Economy Today: Towards a New Socio-Economic Model? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); (with Jeff Garmany) Understanding Contemporary Brazil (Routledge, 2018) and Modern Brazil: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2020). He was President of the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) from 2014 to 2016 and is an occasional commentator on Brazil in the media.

Research

• The political drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
• The rise and transformation of the Federal Police as an actor in Brazil’s democracy
• The rise of national populism and its impact on democracy in Brazil and Brazil’s role in international politics

Teaching

Undergraduate/Postgraduate

4YYD001 Introduction to Development Studies (with Alice Evans)

7YYBS001 Contemporary Brazil

PhD supervision

See Anthony's research students

Further details

See Anthony's research profile