Graham Denyer Willis
Curriculum Vitae
gdw27@cam.ac.uk
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Associate Professor 2018-
University of Cambridge
Centres of Development Studies and Latin American Studies
Department of Politics and International Studies
Fellow and Director of Studies in Geography 2015-
Queens’ College
University of Cambridge
PREVIOUS
University Lecturer 2014-2018
Centres of Development Studies and Latin American Studies
Department of Politics and International Studies
University of Cambridge
Visiting Scholar 2017
Department of Anthropology
Stanford University
Post-Doctoral Fellow 2013-2014
Centre for Criminology and Socio-legal Studies
University of Toronto
EDUCATION
PhD, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT 2013
M.A., Royal Roads University 2007
B.A., University of Toronto 2002
Okanagan University College (transferred onward) 1998
BOOKS
(2022). Keep the Bones Alive: Missing People and the Search for Life in Brazil. Oakland: University of California Press.
(2015). The Killing Consensus: Police, Organized Crime and the Regulation of Life and Death in Urban Brazil. Oakland: University of California Press.
PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES
Denyer Willis, Graham. (accepted). Eating Pizza in Prison: Failing Family Men, Civil Punishment, and the Internal Policing of Whiteness in São Paulo. American Ethnologist.
Denyer Willis, Graham, Finn Stepputat and Gaëlle Clavandier. (2021). Burial and the Politics of Dead Bodies in Times of Covid-19: Exception and Rupture? Human Remains and Violence. (Introduction to our guest edited double Special Issue)
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2021). Mundane Disappearance: The Politics of Letting Disappear in Brazil. Economy and Society. 50(2), 297-321.
Bueno, Samira and Graham Denyer Willis. (2019). The Exceptional Prison. Public Culture. 31(3), 645-663.
Lessing, Ben and Graham Denyer Willis. (2019). Legitimacy in Criminal Governance: Regulating a Drug Empire from Behind Bars. American Political Science Review, 113(2), 584-606.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2018). Violence, Bureaucracy and Intreccio in Brazil. Global Crime, 19 (3-4), 296-314.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2018). The Potter’s Field. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 60 (3), 539-568.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2017). City of Clones: Facsimiles and Governance in São Paulo. Current Sociology, 65 (2), 235- 247.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2017). Before the Body Count: Homicide Statistics and Everyday Security in Latin America. Journal of Latin American Studies, 49, 29-54.
Denyer Willis, Graham and Mariana Mota Prado. (2014). Process and Pattern in Institutional Reforms: A Case Study of the Police Pacification Units (UPPs) in Brazil. World Development, 64, 232-242.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2014). Antagonistic Authorities and the Civil Police in São Paulo, Brazil. Latin American Research Review, 49(1), 3-22.
BOOK CHAPTERS, ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
Denyer Willis, Graham. (accepted). São Paulo: Codes of the Street, Invisibility and Violence. In: Shaw, Mark, and Julie Berg. Criminal Bureaucracies: Symbiotic Security Governance in Emerging Cities. Oxford University Press.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2016). Police, ‘Police’ and the Urban. In: Bradford, Ben, Beatrice Jauregui, Ian Loader and Jonny Steinberg. Sage Handbook of Global Policing. London: Sage, 479-496.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2016). Justice, Rights, and Discretionary Space in Brazilian Policing. In: Brunnegger, Sandra and Karen Faulk (Eds.) A Sense of Justice: Legal Knowledge and Lived Experience in Latin America. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 79-98.
Davis, Diane E. and Graham Denyer Willis (2011). Anti-Crime Social Movements in Latin America. In: Snow, David A., Donatella Della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Doug McAdam (Eds.) Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Blackwell Publishing: Oxford.
Denyer Willis, Graham. (2009). Deadly Symbiosis? The PCC, the State and the Institutionalization of Violence in São Paulo. In: Rodgers, Dennis and Gareth A. Jones. Youth Violence in Latin America. New York: Palgrave.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTARIES
(2020) Jeffrey Martin: Weak Police, Strong Democracy’ Current Anthropology.
(2019). Jaime Amparo Alves: The Anti-Black City: Police Terror and Black Urban Life in Brazil. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
(2017). Eduardo Moncada: Cities, Business and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America. Journal of Latin American Studies.
(2016). Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. Anthropoliteia.
(2015). David Skarbek: The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System. Public Choice, 162 (1), 215-217.
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES/ INVITED BLOG POSTS
(2019). Life and Death Insurance. SSRC Items.
(2016). Policing, Ethnography and Abandonment in Latin America. Border Criminologies.
(2014). The Gun Library. Boston Review.
(2013). In the Shadows: Brazil’s Urban Security Challenge. World Politics Review.
(2013). The Right to Kill? Précis. Center for International Studies, MIT.
(2013). São Paulo: Insecure Citizens, All of Them. Open Democracy.
AWARDS
2021- Philip Leverhulme Prize, Leverhulme Trust
2019-20 Outstanding Contribution to College Education, Queens’ College, Cambridge
2014- Best Dissertation, Brazil Section, Latin American Studies Association
2014- Honorable Mention, Gill Chin-Lim Award for Best Dissertation, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
2014- Honorable Mention, Best Dissertation, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
GRANTS
2020- British Academy/Brazilian Academy of Sciences Seed Grant
2020- British Academy/Brazilian Academy of Sciences Knowledge Exchange
2020- British Academy and Social Science Research Council, Writing Latin America Workshop (Co-I)
2013-2015- (Interrupted for permanent employment) Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2012- Summer Study Research Grant, MIT Center for International Studies
2011- Drugs, Security and Democracy Fellowship, Social Science Research Council/ Open Society Foundations
2011- Emerson Award, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
2010- Dissertation Research Award, MISTI- Brazil, MIT
2009- Harold Horowitz Research Award, School of Architecture and Planning, MIT
2009- Carroll L. Wilson Fellowship, Entrepreneurship Center, MIT
2009- Alumni Class Funds, Office of Faculty Support, (with Diane Davis) MIT
2008- The Glynn Berry Fund- Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (for the CCSRC)
2007- Graduate Research Award, Human Security-Cities/ Foreign Affairs Canada
2006- Master of Arts Scholarship, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada
INVITED TALKS
October 2021. Comparative Politics Seminar, City University of New York
March 2020. Brazil Week, Duke University (Keynote)
November 2019. Department of Social Anthropology, Harvard University
June 2019. Executive Session. Colombian Anthropology Association, Cali, Colombia
March 2019. Wolfson College, University of Cambridge
February 2019. Latin America Centre, Oxford University
October 2018. Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge
June 2018. Centre for Future Intelligence, University of Cambridge
May 2018. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
August 2018. Department of Social Epidemiology, Universidade de Campinas
March 2018. Fundação Getúlio Vargas, São Paulo
February 2018. Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
November 2017. Université de Montréal (Keynote)
April 2017. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
June 2016. Insper, São Paulo
April 2016. (With Maria F.T. Peres) Violence Research Centre, University of Cambridge
March 2016. Institute of the Americas, University College London
December 2015. Latin American Centre, Oxford University
November 2015. Department of Geography, London School of Economics
October 2015. Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge
September 2015. Radical Americas. University College London
July 2015. Department of Political Economy, King’s College London
May 2015. Keynote. Oxbridge Conference on Brazilian Studies, University of Cambridge
April 2014. Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics
April 2014. School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow
April 2014. Brazil Institute, King’s College London
October 2013. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.
October 2013. School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C.
April 2013, w/ Mariana Mota Prado. Law School, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro
March 2013. Metropolis 15, Ottawa (Invited by the Ministry of Public Safety Canada)
March 2013, w/ Mariana Mota Prado. Harvard-MIT Workshop on the Political Economy of Brazil
October 2012. Centre for Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies, University of Toronto
September 2012. Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto
July 2012. Annual Meeting of the Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública, Porto Alegre, Brazil
May 2012. Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
January 2010. Institute for Development Studies (IDS), United Kingdom
October 2009. Anthropology Department, McGill University
TEACHING
Whither Police? Critical Questions for Global Development. (2020). University of Cambridge, Centre of Development Studies (Graduate)
Globalisation and Development. (2019-2021). University of Cambridge, Centre of Development Studies (Graduate)
Capitalism and Society in Latin America. (2018-) University of Cambridge, Centre of Latin American Studies (Graduate).
Sociology and Politics of Development (2018-). University of Cambridge, Centre of Development Studies (Graduate).
Global Urbanism (2015-). University of Cambridge, Dept. of Geography (Undergraduate).
Everyday Life in Contemporary Latin America (2016-2018). University of Cambridge, Centre of Latin American Studies (Graduate).
Cities and Development (2014-2018). University of Cambridge, Centre of Development Studies. (Graduate).
Policing (2014). University of Toronto, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies (Graduate).
Transnationalism and Development- Cape Verdeans and Deportation from New England (2009). MIT, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning (Undergraduate).
COMPLETED PHD STUDENTS
Emilio Garciadiego Ruiz (2021), A Reign of Burnt Wounds and Crowded Cells: Exploring how Power is Upheld at Street Level through Observations of the Municipal Police in Mexico City
Matthew Mahmoudi (2021), Race and Mobility in the Digital Periphery: New Frontiers of Migration Control
Paola Velasco (2021), Energy Justice from the Bottom Up: A Capability Approach to Community Acceptance of Wind Energy in Southern Mexico
Shreyashi Dasgupta (2020), The Accommodation City: Low-income Housing and Urban Governance in Dhaka and Mumbai (Awarded 'Outstanding Merit' from the Royal Asiatic Society)
Alejandro Lerch (2020), The Political Economy of Transnational Drug Trafficking: Criminal Rackets and State- Making in Modern Mexico
Caroline Souza (2019), Chaotic Schooling: State Schools and the Making of (un)Freedom in Contemporary Brazil
OP-EDs
December 2 and 3, 2012. What’s Killing Brazil’s Police? New York Times Sunday Review and International Herald Tribune.
October 27, 2010. Bill C-300: Regulation Plus Responsibility, Please. Toronto Star.
POLICY AND MEDIA
August 2015. Entrevista da Segunda Feira: Graham Denyer Willis. Folha de São Paulo.
December 2012. Na visão da periferia, PCC reduziu crimes, diz canadense que estuda violência em São Paulo. UOL Notícias. (with response from Secretary of Public Security).
December 2012. Uncovering São Paulo's Blood Feud. The Stream, Al Jazeera.
Policy brief, 2007. Private Security in São Paulo: Sure-fire Safety or Catalyst for Urban Conflict? In: Human Security in an Urban Century: Local Challenges, Global Perspectives. Foreign Affairs Canada.
Also quoted and/or cited by the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, the Washington Times, Época, Folha de São Paulo, O Estado de São Paulo, InsightCrime, Superinteressante, BBC Brasil, among other sources.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Editor:
Journal of Latin American Studies (2018-)
Editorial Boards:
Journal of Latin American Studies (2016-), Cambridge Review of International Affairs
Reviewer:
Book Manuscripts, Proposals:
Cambridge University Press, Duke University Press, University of California Press, University of Chicago Press, Oxford University Press, Palgrave, Polity, Routledge, Springer
Journals:
American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist, Annals of American Association of Geographers, Anthropology Today, Anthropological Quarterly, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Building Research and Information, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Comparative Political Studies, Contemporary Social Science, Crime, Law and Social Change, Cultural Anthropology, International Development Planning Review, Development and Change, Global Crime, Global South, International Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Journal of Latin American Studies, Journal of Urban History, Latin American Politics and Society, Latin American Research Review, Policing and Society, Political Geography, Security Dialogue, Social Problems, Society and Space, Qualitative Sociology, Theoretical Criminology.
Funding Councils:
Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, European Research Council, Research Councils UK, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada
PhD External Examining:
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
(2020) IRIS – Sara Leon Spesny (Supervisor: Didier Fassin)
Fundação Getúlio Vargas
(2018) Public Administration – Samira Bueno (Supervisor: Marco Antonio Carvalho Texeira)
King’s College London
(2019) Department of Political Economy – Danilo Freire (Supervisor: David Skarbek)
(2016) Brazil Centre – Roxana Cavalcanti Pessoa (Supervisor: Anthony Pereira)
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo
(2020) Dina Alves (Supervisor: Josildeth Consorte)
School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS)
(2020) Department of Development Studies - Nick Pope (Supervisor: Jonathan Goodhand)
Universidade de Campinas (UNICAMP)
(2021) Department of Economics- Taciana Santos (Supervisor: Marcio Pochmann)
