Breadcrumb
Stefanie Israel de Souza
Assistant Professor
Stefanie is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology and Justice Studies. She is, to use Javier Auyero's term, a political ethnographer of urban marginality. Her research is primarily based in Brazilian favelas, looking at how policing and other state interventions, as well as the presence of drug gangs, impact the everyday lives of favela residents. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Expiration Date, examining how the policing intervention known as "pacification" was experienced by residents over time (described as having a "prazo de validade"), how it was informed by deeply problematic, inaccurate discursive constructions of the favela, how it failed to live up to its promises, and how it ultimately "expired" on an Olympic timeline as residents had predicted, though not precisely as they had imagined.
Areas of Interest
Comparative Urban Marginality, Critical Criminology, Global Sociology, Political Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Qualitative Methods, Brazil
- Ph.D., Sociology, University of Notre Dame, 2019
- M.A., Sociology, University of Notre Dame, 2014
- M.T.S., Biblical Studies, Palmer Theological Seminary, 2011
- B.A. with Honors, Sociology and Religious Studies, Linfield College, 2006
Recent Courses:
CRIM 125 Intro to Criminology and Justice Studies
CRIM 410 Theories of Justice and Crime
CRIM 420 Drugs and Society
CRIM 430 Law and Dissent
SOC 303M Race and Inequality for Majors
SOC 330 Social Deviance
SOC 480 Comparative War on Drugs
SOC 665 Community, Ecology, and Social Action
Israel de Souza, Stefanie. Forthcoming. “Policing the Urban Margins.” Chapter 34 in The Oxford Handbook of Urban Sociology, edited by Leonard Nevarez and Ryan Centner. Oxford University Press.
“[Un]Contested Necropolitics at the Urban Margins: Protesting Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas.” Presented at the Latin American Studies Association Congress in May 2025.
Reilly, Timothy, Darcia Narvaez, Mark Graves, Keke Kaikhosroshvili and Stefanie Israel de Souza. 2022. Moral and Intellectual Virtue in Practice: Through the Eyes of Scientists and Musicians. Palgrave MacMillan.
Israel de Souza, Stefanie. 2021. “Cria Pride and Place in the Favela.” Contexts 20(1):65-66.
Israel de Souza, Stefanie. 2019. “Pacification of Rio’s Favelas and the ‘Pacification of the Pacification Police:’ The Role of Coordinating Brokerage in Police Reform.” Sociological Forum 34(2):458-482.
Alpha Kappa Delta (AKD) Chapter Representative
Humboldt Journal of Social Relations Editorial Board President
Co-editor (with Caglar Dolek) of Humboldt Journal of Social Relations Special Issue 48: Resistance to State Violence, projected release date of May 2026.