Leila Bijos
Visiting Scholar 2003-2004
Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies
Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
PhD candidate in Sociology, Universidade de Brasilia (Brazil)


Area of Expertise: Bijos has extensive knowledge of human rights, economic development of women and local sustainable development. She is also familiar with technical cooperation and international negotiations.

Country of Expertise: Brazil and Japan

Current Research Project: Within the context of women and development, Bijos is analyzing the economic transformation of socially excluded women and two regional microcredit programs in Brazil and Bolivia. The analysis will focus on the social place of women in society, their most common difficulties, especially those related to women who migrate from rural areas to urban centers. The research will be developed questioning gender and power, the universal oppression of sex/gender, the sociological thoughts in Occidental societies and especially in their macro field.

Project Title: Women and Development: The Regional Microfinance Program for Women in the Urban Informal Sector: 1980-2002 - A Case Study: Brazil - Bolivia

Academic Background: Bijos received her BA from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais, her MA in International Relations from Universidade de Brasilia. She is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Universidade de Brasilia.

Bijos is a professor at Universidade Catolica de Brasilia, and was the coordinator of the International Program. She is a specialist in Long Distance Education being a member of Catolica Virtual at the Graduate Course of International Business and Foreign Trade. She has been invited to visit and lecture in many foreign universities in Japan, the Republic of China, Ecuador, Switzerland, South Africa, Iran, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama. She is a former Visiting Scholar at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies 2002 Summer Seminar in U.S. Studies for Latin American Social Scientists and Professionals at UCSD, She is a CAPES/Fulbright Visiting Scholar.

Selected Publications:
Bijos has published several articles on various subjects in Brazilian reviews and newspapers:

• "Analise de Integracao do Leste Asiatico - ASEAN"
• "Os Sujeitos do Preconceito: um enfoque sobre o desenvolvimento economico e social da mulher no contexto internacional"
• "A Insercao do Brasil no Contexto Internacional de Globalizacao"
• "A Tempestade ou o Pesadelo da Globalizacao"
• "Bolivia: descaso e discriminacao ao trabalho da mulher"
• "Violencia: o cotidiano da mulher"
• "Women and Development: Empowerment in the Informal Sector - Case Study: Salvador of Bahia - Brazil"