I am a PhD candidate in political science at Sciences Po's Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE). My research interests lie at the intersection of urban studies, comparative politics, and public policy. My doctoral research, under the supervision of Patrick Le Galès, develops a comparative historical analysis of the changes in the institutions governing informal land tenure in São Paulo and Mexico City over the past 50 years. 

Before joining Sciences Po, I earned a Master's degree in public policy and management from the Getulio Vargas Foundation and a Bachelor's degree in architecture and urbanism from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. I have worked on applied research projects with non-governmental organizations such as URBEM, Instituto Escolhas, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and CIPPEC. I have also served as an advisor for the City Hall of São Paulo and as a consultant for Cities Alliance and the World Bank Group. In my previous experiences, I have worked with various urban policy topics, including socio-environmental disasters, transportation and mobility, food systems, and land policy.

In addition to my research, I have taught master-level courses and coordinated the Cities are Back in Town research seminars at Sciences Po's Urban School. I was a visiting researcher at El Colegio de Mexico's Center for Demographic, Urban, and Environmental Studies in Spring 2022 and 2023, and I received a writing-up grant from the IJURR Foundation for 2024. I am currently a visiting researcher at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford.

marcela[ dot]alonsoferreira[at ]sciencespo.fr   googlescholar  bluesky   linkedin   researchgate