
Luciana de Souza Leão
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan
Luciana de Souza Leão is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, specializing in cash transfer programs, racial inequalities, and the politics of data. She received her Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia University in 2019. Before coming to academia, Luciana worked as a development economist for the World Bank in Brazil for three years and has since been active in the public debate about global poverty, with her research being cited in such venues as the Washington Post, The Guardian, O Globo, and Folha de São Paulo, among others. Luciana has published in the main journals in her field, such as the American Economic Journal, American Journal of Sociology, Theory and Society, and World Development. She teaches courses in global poverty and inequality, political sociology, and the politics of knowledge.