School of SSESW academics Michelle Butler and Siobhan McAlister from our Criminology team joined colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Violence, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil recently as part of a partnership project exploring crime, security and legitimacy in border regions. Their visit was hosted by Professor Marcos Cesar Alvarez and Gustavo Higo, who spent time at Queen’s University Belfast with the SSESW colleagues in July this year as part of the project exchange, and by Camilla Dias and Fernando Silla whose work specialises in prison research and organised crime.

While they were in Brazil, Michelle and Siobhan (pictured second and third left) shared their research on Crime, Conflict and Borders in Northern Ireland with academics and representatives from the Military Police and the Civil Police. They made site visits to battalions of both police forces, learning from them about policing and organised crime in Sao Paulo and making connections to inform future research with academics in the Centre for the Study of Violence.