Staff Profile
Dr Nayara Albrecht
Research Associate/Data Lead for Insights North East
- Email: nayara.albrecht@ncl.ac.uk
- Personal Website: https://nayalbrecht.github.io/
I am an enthusiastic computational political scientist with a great passion for teaching and a strong background in quantitative and qualitative research methods.
During my career, I have had the privilege of teaching and conducting research at esteemed universities in Brazil and the UK. These include the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Queen Mary University London, the Federal University of Sao Carlos, and Aston University. I have held positions as a lecturer and research associate, and I was honoured to be a fellow of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation, one of the most relevant funding agencies in Brazil. Additionally, from 2014 to 2020, I served as a career civil servant at the Ministry of Culture of Brazil, where I held several managerial roles and became a strong advocate for evidence-based policy. In 2020, I worked as a polyvalent assistant at the Quebec's Office in Sao Paulo (Consulate of Canada).
Currently, I hold the position of Chair for the International Political Science Association's research committee on politics and business. I also served as a co-editor for two academic journals. Furthermore, I actively participate in the Py Ladies community, which aims to encourage women to engage with programming languages.
I am happy to employ my combined expertise in academia and the policymaking as the data lead for Insights North East.
As a strong advocate for open access, I always publish in open access journals and make my data available through public repositories.
I also have a varied range of informal interests, such as reading, travelling, cooking, and sports (kickboxing and aerial acrobatics). I am enthusiastic about learning languages and unapologetically geeky.
Languages
- Portuguese (Native)
- English (Fluent)
- French (Fluent)
- Spanish (Fluent)
- German (Beginner)
- Polish (Beginner)
Stay connected
LinkedIn, Blog on Political Science and Pop Culture, Research Gate, Academia.Edu, GitHub
@nayara_albrecht (X/former Twitter)
Expertise
As a political scientist, my research interests encompass a broad range of topics that require analysis of various types of data.
My career began with a focus on political theory, particularly democratic theories. For my master's dissertation, I delved into the theoretical implications of wealth and income inequality on democracies. Subsequently, I shifted my attention towards analysing political inequality from a different perspective by exploring power asymmetries among interest groups through the examination of their lobbying activities. This research led to my PhD thesis, which was a case study on interest organisations in the field of copyright. It was awarded in a national competition. Having worked at the Ministry of Culture of Brazil, I am also interested in intellectual property.
More recently, my research has revolved around understanding the policymaking process and the role of the public bureaucracy. My previous projects have specifically investigated the influence of bureaucrats in shaping public policies, focusing on their career paths. One notable project involved the development of a comprehensive dataset on the national bureaucracy in Brazil, which includes data on over 800 civil servants spanning three administrations.
Key areas
- Research methods
- Political theory/Modern and contemporary political thought
- Interest groups and lobbying
- Bureaucracy and policymaking
- Political theory
- Democratic institutions
- Intellectual property
Along my career, I was responsible for various modules and lectures at diverse institutions in Brazil and in the UK. I also served as supervisor for undergraduate students. I engaged in a varied range of extracurricular activities, such as workshops and training sessions.
I am completely passionate about teaching and helping students.
Modules
- Public Bureaucracy
- Interest Groups and Lobbying
- Democracy and Inequalities
- Introduction to Political Science
- Contemporary Issues in Political Science
- Contemporary Democratic Theory
Training courses
- Introduction to Data Science with R
- Introduction to Qualitative Research
- Discourse Analysis
- Case studies
Guest lectures
- 2022: Media and cultural studies
- 2022: The Governance of Global Problems
- 2022: EuroSim: Learning Negotiation through Simulation Games
- 2021: Bureaucracy and public policies
Institutions
- Aston University
- Birmingham City University
- Federal University of Sao Carlos
- Federal University of Sao Paulo
- Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
- University of Brasilia
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Articles
- Albrecht NFMM. Parties Are Not the Only Patrons: Towards a New Typology of Patronage. Brazilian Political Science Review 2024, 18(3), e0001.
- Albrecht NFMM, Troiano M. Interview with Barbara Geddes: Bureaucracy and the Functioning of Democratic Institutions. Revista Agenda Politica 2023, 10(2), 259-281.
- Albrecht NFMM. Disputes over intellectual rights in Brazil: interest organisations and their impacts on copyright law. SN Social Sciences 2023, 3, 82.
- Albrecht NFMM. Ce n’est pas technique, c’est politique: les disputes dans le domaine du droit d’auteur au Brésil. Direito, Estado e Sociedade 2023, 63, 301-336.
- Albrecht NFMM. Bureaucrats, interest groups and policymaking: a comprehensive overview from the turn of the century. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 2023, 10, 565.
- Albrecht NFMM, Castro CFPC, Silva DAAS, Souto GA. Nomes de domínio e propriedade intelectual: reflexões sobre resolução de controvérsias a partir da Análise Econômica do Direito. Revista Direito GV 2022, 18(1), e2208.
- Albrecht NFMM. Distribuição de cargos, contexto político e presidencialismo brasileiro: uma análise institucional do sistema de livre provimento. Opiniao Publica 2022, 28(3), 828-856.
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Book Chapter
- Mundo J, Soza S, Albrecht NFMM. Privatization and the Governance of the Commons. In: Azmanova, A; Chamberlain, J, ed. Capitalism, Democracy, Socialism: Critical Debates. Cham: Springer, 2022, pp.35-70.
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Edited Book
- Ribeiro PF, Troiano M, Albrecht NFMM, ed. Mosaico da burocracia pública brasileira: novos olhares sobre burocratas e interesses no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: EdUERJ, 2022.