Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Political Science & International Affairs

Gabriel Soyer is a first-year PhD Student at the University of Georgia. He is interested in studying rural development on Latin American agricultural frontiers and its consequences for rural landscapes and livelihoods.

Education

Bachelor of Arts (with Honors) in International Relations, University of Brasilia, Brazil.

More About

Gabriel has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Brasília (UnB), Brazil. His academic and professional work has focused on agriculture, food policy, rural development, and human rights. He has carried out research on and published about land grabbing, extractivism, food policies, and social policies during COVID-19.

While at University of Brasília Gabriel worked as a Research Assistant (with funding) at Tutorial Education Program (PET) for 4 years. PET is a national Brazilian governmental program which promotes academic training for selected undergraduate students. During his time as undergraduate student, Gabriel got the opportunity to work as teaching assistant for International Political Economy I at the Institute of International Relations from the University of Brasília.

From 2018 to 2021, Gabriel had worked with food policy and development in Brazil through positions at the Food and Nutrition Security National Council (CONSEA), the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Prior to coming to UGA, Gabriel worked as advocacy assistant at FIAN Brazil, researching, and advocating for the Human Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition within the Brazil’s National School Meal Program (PNAE). He has experience with collecting data, mobilizing public support in campaigns, establishing advocacy strategies, producing policy analyses, and policy briefs. Due of his experience with Brazilian civil society, Gabriel had worked alongside food movements, rural movements, indigenous peoples, and traditional communities in Brazil.

His current research focuses on agrarian politics, environmental governance, and state-building in Latin America drawing in a comparative approach.

Research Interests

Comparative Politics; International Relations; agrarian politics; food policy; rural development; development studies; political economy.