Degrees prior to starting this degree program:

LL.B. in Law – Federal University of Paraná (Brazil), 2014

LL.M. in Human Rights – Birkbeck, University of London (UK), 2018

Field Research Plans/History:

Lucas is a joint Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology and in the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM). He works at the intersection of law, socioeconomic development, and the environment. His dissertation research focuses on industrial agribusiness and new settler colonialism in the Brazilian Amazon region, where he carried out fieldwork among large-scale farmers and landowners. Lucas is investigating how settler colonists interact with the environment, with other social groups and, more recently, with transnational projects of Payment for Environmental Services.

At Princeton, Lucas has been appointed a Lassen Fellow in PLAS and is a Graduate Fellow at the Brazil LAB. He received research grants and support from PIIRS, HMEI, IHUM, the C.V. Starr Fellowship Fund, and the Prize Fellowship in the Social Sciences. Lucas is also an attorney licensed by the Brazilian Bar Association. Prior to Princeton, he worked in Brazil in the public sector and in non-profits.

Areas of Interest:

Legal and Political Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology & Environmental Humanities, Agribusiness and the Green Economy, Amazonia & Brazil

Publications, Multimedia Projects:

BIEHL, J.; PRATES, Lucas E. A.; AMON, J. J. 2021. Supreme Court v. Necropolitics: The Chaotic Judicialization of COVID-19 in Brazil. Health and Human Rights Journal, 23 (1), 151-162.

Membership/activities in graduate student events or organizations:

LGSA (Latinx Graduate Students Association)

LEGS (Law-Engaged Graduate Students)