Marcos Alan Shaikhzadeh Vahdat Ferreira

Associate Professor at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) and CNPq Level 2 Productivity Scholarship recipient. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Unicamp (2010) and a Masters in International Relations from the Santiago Dantas Program (UNESP/UNICAMP/PUC-SP) (2006). He has served as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Manchester (UK, 2018 and 2019), the University of Uppsala (Sweden, 2014), and the University of São Paulo (2021-2022). Additionally, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London (2022) and the University of Vechta (Germany, 2017 and 2019). He also collaborates as a professor in the Master's program in Social Development at Universidad Núr (Bolivia) and volunteers with the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP).Throughout his career, he has conducted research with the National School of Public Administration (ENAP) and the Legislative Assembly of Paraíba, focusing on public security, political scenarios, and foreign policy. He has also served as a political scenario consultant for technology companies, helping to improve algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. He has been invited to speak at public hearings in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and has provided interviews and commentary for international media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, BBC World News, GloboNews, and Folha de São Paulo.His work has been published in both international and national journals such as International Studies Perspectives, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Latin American Research Review, Trends in Organized Crime, Journal of Politics in Latin America, Journal of Political Science Education, Peace and Change, and the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice. He is also the author or editor of five books. Since 2021, he has been a member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). From 2016 to 2020, he served on the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA). His current research focuses on the impact of organized crime and state violence on peace in Brazil and South America. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)