My name is Gisella Lopes Gomes Pinto Ferreira, I am from Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais/Brasil. I am a qualified lawyer in Brasil and have a degree in Law from Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). I have also completed a Post Graduate Course in Criminal Procedure from Anhanguera Uniderp. I am currently a Masters student in the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). My thesis research explores the prevention of gendered violence in youth cohorts in Brasil, adopting a southern criminology lens, critical feminist perspective. I will start my PhD at QUT in July 2020 and my thesis will explore Technology facilitated abuse: Controlling behaviours amongst teenagers in Australia and Brasil. Additionally, I work as a sessional academic at QUT, where I am also a MATE Bystander trainer and part of the QUT Feminist Reading Group. I am engaged with the Latin American community in Australia and I am a co-founder of the bookclub Latinas Feministas in Brisbane (2018- present).

I am passionate about criminology and criminal law and have dedicated my entire academic life to studies in these fields.  My capabilities and skills were recognised by my institutions. During my degree in Law from UFMG I was approved in first place in the public selection to be teacher assistant of ‘Criminal Procedure II’ on two occasions. In this role, I tutored students and coordinated Criminology and Criminal Procedure research and study groups with my Professor and mentor, Leonardo Marinho and other colleagues in the Criminal Law Department. 

I have a special interest in the prevention of gendered violence. In fact, my motivation for pursuing a law degree was to assist women facing domestic violence and single mothers. I wish to undertake research that will protect and empower women and girls in disadvantaged positions. My dream is to pursue an academic career of research that will help women and girls. 

I am engaged with the IPV sector in Australia and Brasil and became aware of the potential knowledge-sharing that can occur between the two through the course of my studies. In June (in Brasil) and December (in Australia) of 2019, I joined Brasilian and Australian experts in a policy exchange program: a partnership between both countries to enhance prevention of domestic and gender-based violence (https://www.qut.edu.au/law/about/news?id=149908).