Fellow
Researcher, Getulio Vargas Foundation São Paulo Law School
Lívia Gonçalves Buzolin is a Law and Development scholar at FGV São Paulo Law School (Brazil). She holds a PhD and master’s degree in Law and Development from FGV, a bachelor’s degree in Social Communication from the University of the State of São Paulo,and a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University Presbiteriana Mackenzie
She works in the field of socio-legal studies, and her research interests include sexuality, gender, human rights, political institutions, courts, democracy and autocratization.
Lívia is the founding coordinator of the South-South network, created to strengthen the voice of young global south scholars in academia. It consists of young LawTransform-affiliated socio-legal scholars from Latin America, Africa, and Asia and aims to give a broader reach and to become protagonists in the debates involving them. The network published its first joint special issue in October 2024 . Published by Revista Direito GV, this special issue rethinks inequalities through Southern voices, featuring groundbreaking research and case studies on social, gender, sexual, and structural inequality.
She edited the Network’s second joint publication: Gender, Sexuality and Law: South-South Perspectives, which will be published by Springer by the end of 2026. Grounded in rights-based theory and empirical research, the book brings together case studies from Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Uruguay. It explores key issues including sexual and reproductive rights, adolescent pregnancy, feminist peacebuilding, the spread of “gender ideology” discourse, transitional justice, LGBT rights, gender stereotypes in criminal courts, and the role of technology in reproducing gender inequalities in the workplace.
Lívia was a guest researcher at the Centre on Law & Social Transformation, helping to teach the following courses: interdisciplinary MA and PhD course on “Resisting Anti-Gender Politics”, a collaboration with SKOK (2026); interdisciplinary BA course on “Constitution, Courts and Politics”, a collaboration with the Faculty of Law and the Department of Government at the University of Bergen (2025); and MA and PhD Course on “Gendered Autocrazation” from the Department of Government at the University of Bergen (2024).
Lívia was also a guest researcher at LawTransfom from August to November 2022, working on her dissertation on LGBTI rights policies in Brazil from a state-centred perspective. She was also involved in the project Queer Lawfare Seminar Series, as well as other academic activities and projects hosted by LawTransform, the University of Bergen, and the Chr. Michelsen Institute.
Check out her publications here: