LUIZ H. D.

VILAÇA

Academic Positions
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR), Tulane University.
• Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bowdoin College (starting fall 2024).

Education
University of Notre Dame, PhD Sociology
2023 Dissertation: “A Socio-Cultural Approach to Anti-Corruption Crusades: a Multi-Methods
Study of the Lava Jato Prosecutions”
Committee: Erin McDonnell (co-chair), Ann Mische (co-chair), Rory McVeigh, Aníbal
Pérez-Liñan (Political Science)
Exams: Political Sociology (with distinction) and Sociology of Organizations

University of Brasília
2017 M.A. Political Science
2016 B.A. Political Science
2014 B.S. Industrial Engineering

Areas of Specialization
Political Sociology Law & Society Corruption and White-collar Crime
Organizations Social Movements Global Sociology

Honors and Awards

2023 Winner of the Shaheen Award for Best Dissertation in Social Sciences.
2020 Co-winner of John J. Kane Memorial Award for Most Outstanding Graduate Student.
2020 Winner of Society for the Study of Social Problems’ Conflict, Social Action, and Change Division’s
Graduate Student Paper Award.
2019 Winner of Jeanine Becker Award for Best Graduate Student Paper.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Forth. Vilaça, Luiz, Victoria Paniagua, and Marco Morucci “Anti-Political Class Bias in Corruption
Sentencing” forthcoming pending replication of data in American Journal of Political Science.

Forth. Vilaça, Luiz. “Unanticipated Outcomes: The Criminalization of Political Corruption in Brazil”
forthcoming in Sociology of Development.

Forth. Vilaça, Luiz. “Framing and Prosecutorial Discretion: A Study on Why Brazilian Federal
Prosecutors Focused on Corruption.” Forthcoming at Law & Society Review.

Forth. Vilaça, Luiz. “A Social Movement Model for Judicial Behavior: Evidence from Brazil’s Anti-
Corruption Movements.” Forthcoming at Social Forces.

2024 Vilaça, Luiz and Jacob Turner “The New Corruption Crusaders: Security-Sector Ties as an Anti-
Corruption Voting Heuristic” Latin American Politics and Society (2024), p. 1-22.

2023 Vilaça, Luiz. “Communication and Decision-Making Processes: Group-level Determinants of

State Performance.” Social Problems, XX, 1–21.
● Winner of SSSP 2020 Conflict, Social Action, and Change Paper Competition

2020 Vilaça, Luiz. “When Bureaucrats Become Activists.” Mobilization. 25(3):405-424.

● Winner of the Notre Dame’s Jeanine Becker Award for Graduate Student Paper
2018 Von Bulow, Marisa; Luiz Vilaça; Pedro Abelin. “Varieties of Digital Practices for Activism:
students and mobilization in Chile.” Information, Communication & Society, vol. 1, pp. 1-19.

2017 Vilaça, Luiz. “De práticas a capacidades: a atuação de procuradores do Ministério Público Federal
no caso de Belo Monte.” Sociedade & Cultura, vol. 20, n. 1, pp. 61-82.

Book Chapters
2021 McDonnell, Erin; Luiz Vilaça. “Pockets of Effectiveness and Islands of Integrity: Variation in
Quality of Governance within Central State Administrations.” In Marcia Grimes et al. (ed.)
Handbook of Quality of Government. Oxford University Press.

2020 Vilaça, Luiz. “Para além do gabinete: o ativismo de procuradores no caso da usina de Belo
Monte.” In Rebecca Abers (ed.) Ativismo Institucional: Criatividade e Luta na Burocracia Brasileira.”

2019 Vilaça, Luiz. “Criatividade na burocracia: o papel do Ministério Público Federal no caso da usina
de Belo Monte.” In Carla Teixeira, Andréa Lobo, and Luiz Abreu (ed.) Etnografias das instituições,
práticas de poder e dinâmicas estatais. Brasília: ABA Publicações.

Papers under Review

Vilaça, Luiz. “Judge Ideology and Judicial Behavior in Corruption Trials: Evidence from Brazil.” Revise
& Resubmit at Southern Economic Journal.
Vilaça, Luiz. “The Power of Injustice Frames: Experimental Evidence from Brazil’s Anti-Corruption
Campaigns.” Revise & Resubmit at Socius.

Work in Progress
McDonnell, Erin and Luiz Vilaça. “Theoretical Framing Revealed: A typology of the structural forms of
theoretical intervention in generalist sociology.” Preparing for submission.
Luiz Vilaça. “Prosecutors and the Fight against Corruption in Brazil.” Book manuscript in preparation.
McDonnell, Erin and Luiz Vilaça. “Theoretical Framing in the Social Sciences: The Craft of Conveying
the Novelty & Importance of New Research.” Book manuscript in preparation.
Vilaça, Luiz; Victoria Paniagua, and Marco Morucci. “Press Coverage and Bias in Corruption Sentencing.”
Collecting data.
McDonnell, Erin and Luiz Vilaça. “Esprit de Corps and Organizational Performance: The Diffusion of
Pockets of Effectiveness in Brazil.” Collecting data.
Vilaça, Luiz; Katherine Bersch, and Kimberly Peh. “Does Participation Make up for the Democratic
Deficit?” Collecting data.
Dudley, Jennifer and Luiz Vilaça. “The Effect of CEO Activism and Incivility on Employee Attraction.”
Collecting data.

Grants
2017-22 Notre Dame, Kellogg Institute PhD Fellow. US$ 25,000.

2021 Notre Dame, Kellogg Institute Graduate Research Grant. US$ 5,330.

2021 Notre Dame, Institute of Liberal Arts. Graduate Student Research Awards. US$ 3,800.

2020-21 Notre Dame, PhD Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS). US$ 500

2020-21 Notre Dame, Leadership Advancing Socially Engaged Research (LASER) fellowship
2020 Notre Dame, Kellogg Institute Graduate Research Grant. US$ 4,400.

2019 Notre Dame , Kellogg Institute Grants to Organized Conferences (with Tomás Gold, Ann Mische,
and Erin McDonnell). US$ 5,000.

2018 Notre Dame, Institute of Liberal Arts. Graduate Student Research Awards. US$ 3,500.
2016 Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa do Distrito Federal (state-level funding agency in Brazil).
Conference travel grant. US$ 2,000.

2016 National Council of Scientific and Technologic Development (equivalent to Brazilian NSF). Field
research grant. US$ 900.

Conference Organizing
2019 Co-Organizer, the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Corruption Workshop, hosted at the University of
Notre Dame.

2019 Organizing committee of the Sociology of Development Conference, hosted at the University of Notre
Dame.

Conference Presentations
2022 McDonnell, Erin; Luiz Vilaça. “Theoretical Valence Revealed: A typology of the structural forms
of theoretical intervention in generalist sociology.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the
meeting of the American Sociological Association.

2021 Vilaça, Luiz. “Punitive Protests and Judicial Decisions: Evidence from Brazil’s Anti-Corruption
Movements.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the meeting of the Social Science History
Association.

2021 Vilaça, Luiz. “Communication and Authority Structures: The Group-Level Determinants of State
Performance.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the meeting of the American Sociological
Association.

2019 Vilaça, Luiz. “Subterranean and Public Activism: Anti-Corruption Reform in Brazil.” Paper
presented at the annual meeting of the meeting of the American Sociological Association, the Sociology
of Development Conference, and the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Corruption Workshop.

2018 Vilaça, Luiz. “Activist Bureaucrats and Policy Change: The Struggles of Riverine Communities in
the Belo Monte Case.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

2018 McDonnell, Erin; Luiz Vilaça. “Brazilian State Building: From Isolated Pockets of Effectiveness
to Seeds of Change.” Paper presented at the Comparative-Historical Social Science Conference.

Professional Experience
2017-present Research Assistant. Erin McDonnell. University of Notre Dame

Skills and Languages

Software Stata
Languages Fluent in Portuguese & English, advanced Spanish and French, basic German and Italian

Teaching
Fall 2020 Instructor. Introduction to Social Problems. University of Notre Dame
Spring 2016 Teaching Assistant. Modern Theory. University of Brasília
Fall 2015 Teaching Assistant. Social Movements and Collective Behavior. University of Brasília
Fall 2014 Teaching Assistant. Contemporary Theory. University of Brasília

Associations
2017-present American Sociological Association
2019-present Latin American Studies Association
Service
2020-2021 Member of the Committee to Advance Diversity and Inclusion in the Sociology
Department at the University of Notre Dame
2021-2022 Member of the Advisory Committee for Campus Climate Related to LGBTQ Students at
the University of Notre Dame

Reviews: Reviewer for American Sociological Review and American Journal of Sociology