Dr Thaís de Carvalho

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.