Michel Chapira Viner

Michel is a DPhil student in Criminology at the Centre for Criminology, supervised by Associate Professor Leila Ullrich. Using a qualitative approach that combines Marxist ideology theories and Afro-Latin American feminist epistemology, his research aims to examine how the Brazilian carceral system produces subjects capable of reproducing intersectional hierarchies and violence along the lines of race, gender, class, etc. 

Michel holds an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford and a BA in Law equivalent from the University of São Paulo (USP). He previously worked in or with various organisations and institutions, from courts of justice to the São Paulo state public defenders' office, from NGOs to families of prisoners’ organisations. His work both professionally and in research has covered topics such as human rights oversight in carceral environments, women's reproductive and abortion rights, as well as penal abolitionism.

Michel was a fully funded master's student through a mix of departmental and UK charity scholarships. For the DPhil, he received the Rhodes Scholarship, becoming the first Rhodes Scholar to directly represent Brazil (Global Constituency, 2026). In the Centre for Criminology, he is also a co-convenor of the Southernising Criminology and Abolitionist Imaginaries and Praxis Discussion Groups.