Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Nayara Albrecht

Research Associate/Data Lead for Insights North East

Background

I am an enthusiastic political scientist and (wannabe) data 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 am also privileged to serve 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.


Leveraging my combined experiences in academia and the public sector, I am glad to employ this expertise at Insights North East. As a partnership between Newcastle University and Northumbria, this organisation aims to bridge the gap between academia and policymaking.


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)

Research

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





Teaching

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


Publications