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Dr Thaís de Carvalho

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Lecturer in Sustainable Development
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Social Sciences & Global Studies
  • Development
  • thais.decarvalho-r-lopes

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Professional biography

Dr. Thaís de Carvalho is a Lecturer in Sustainable Development at the School of Social Sciences and Global Studies (SSGS) at the Open University, UK. Thaís is keen to examine how social policies can be improved to sustainably address poverty in rural contexts. She is interested in social protection programmes, climate-induced migration, environmental justice, and all policy debates on childhood and the intergenerational reproduction of poverty. She has experience conducting research in diverse contexts in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Before joining the OU, Thaís held teaching positions at Birkbeck (University of London), the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University College London (UCL). She was also a Visiting Lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). In addition to her academic engagements, Thaís has worked as a research consultant for Fundación Capital (Colombia), ODI (UK), UNICEF Peru, and the International Centre for Research and Policy on Childhood (CIESPI - Brazil), conducting systematic reviews of social policy, designing age- and culturally-sensitive methodologies, and collecting data with various stakeholders.

Currently, Thaís contributes as a referee for the journals Climate & Development, Childhood and Children & Society. She was also a contributing author in the 2021 Amazon Assessment Report.

 

Research interests

Thaís leads the project Building Sustainable Futures for Amazonian youth: an interdisciplinary analysis of Indigenous impoverishment in climate-changed territories, which is supported by the Open University's Open Societal Challenges.

She is also involved in the following projects

  • Understanding attitudes, countering stigma and cultivating empathy to tackle poverty and inequality, led by Keetie Roelen and supported by the Open Societal Challenges.
  • Wealth and Value in the Lithium-ion Battery Chain, led by Michael Pryke, and funded by the Danish Global Innovation Network Grant.

At the OU, she is co-leading the Poverty, Inequality and Social Protection (PISP) research hub, alongside Keetie Roelen.

Teaching interests

Thaís is involved in undergraduate teaching related to Global Development. She has worked in the production of DD229 and is co-chairing the module DD329. She is also involved in the presentation of DD113.

Thaís is interested in supervising PhD research students with an interest in social policy, environmental justice, childhood and youth, and Latin American and Caribbean development.

Impact and engagement

Thaís has worked as a consultant for several think tanks and non-governmental organisations, assessing the impact of social policies and programmes targeting vulnerable communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Some outputs include:

Theory of change and strategic framework for UNICEF’s work on children in contexts of human mobility: an approach from UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean

Children on the move in Latin America and the Caribbean: Review of evidence

 

Externally funded projects

TA-9896 REG: Supporting the Operational Priority 1 Agenda: Strengthening Poverty and Social Analysis - PSA Training (Firm)
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator16 Sep 202431 Dec 2024ADB Asian Development Bank

Design and delivery of a 20-hour face-to-face training on poverty and social analysis for staff of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Developing Member Country (DMC) staff. Informed by a learning needs assessment, the training builds capacity in understanding the range of approaches and methodologies for poverty and social analysis, assessing the benefits and challenges of such approaches and methodologies, and considering their use in relation to ADB operations.

Overcoming colonial continuities in the area of social protection: Learning from the past
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator06 May 202431 Jan 2025German Federal Ministry TBC

This is a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) and commissioned by German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) to explore the overarching question: “How can low and middle income countries be supported in establishing, expanding and restructuring social protection programmes that are appropriate to their framework conditions and the values and norms prevailing in their societies?”. The project entails two country case studies, leading to country case study papers, and one overarching framework papers. These will be published as co-branded IDOS/CSGD working papers and lead into academic publications. The research will also be presented at a research workshop, to be organised separately by IDOS early 2025.

Publications

The cascading effects of climate change on children: extreme floods, family mobility and child well-being in Amazonia (2024)
de Carvalho, Thaís
Climate and Development ((early access))

Integrating Environmental Justice into Child-Sensitive Social Protection: The Environmental Roots of Intergenerational Poverty in Amazonia (2024)
de Carvalho, Thaís
The European Journal of Development Research ((Early access))

[Book review] Disputing discipline: Child protection, punishment and piety in Zanzibar schools. (2023-05)
de Carvalho, Thaís
Children & Society, 37(3) (pp. 994-996)

Book review: Tambe, A. 2019: Defining Girlhood in India: A Transnational History of Sexual Maturity Laws (2021-01)
de Carvalho, Thaís
Progress in Development Studies, 21(1) (pp. 110-112)

White men and electric guns: Analysing the Amazonian dystopia through Shipibo-Konibo children’s drawings (2021)
de Carvalho, Thaís
Global Studies of Childhood, 11(1) (pp. 40-53)

The use of Ethnography for Livelihoods Research (2022)
de Carvalho, Thaís
In: Nunan, Fiona; Barnes, Clare and Krishnamurthy, Sukanya eds. The Routledge Handbook on Livelihoods in the Global South (pp. 114-123)
ISBN : 978-0-367-85635-9 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, Oxon

Children on the Move in Latin America and the Caribbean: Review of the evidence (2023-01)
Marcus, Rachel; Leon-Himmelstine, Carmen; de Carvalho, Thaís and Jiménez Thomas Rodríguez, Diana
UNICEF, ODI

Children affected by internal migration and displacement in Latin America and the Caribbean (2023-01)
Marcus, Rachel; Leon-Himmelstine, Carmen; de Carvalho, Thaís and Jiménez Thomas Rodríguez, Diana
UNICEF, ODI

Children who stay behind in Latin America and the Caribbean while parents migrate (2023-01)
Marcus, Rachel; Leon-Himmelstine, Carmen; de Carvalho, Thaís and Jiménez Thomas Rodríguez, Diana
UNICEF, ODI

População infantil e adolescente em situação de rua: temas em destaque em âmbito internacional (2017-12)
Rizzini, Irene; de Carvalho, Thaís and Mena Brasil do Couto, Renata
CIESPI/PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro.