Congratulations to Dr Gabriel Funari and Dr Xinyi Zhao, who have been awarded their DPhils in Sociology.
Gabriel's thesis examines the ways in which the police become directly involved in organised crime in Brazil. He undertook several rounds of fieldwork in the Amazonian city of Belém to explore why law-enforcement officers create criminal groups like death squads and militias.
These police-backed criminal groups rule over densely populated neighbourhoods in the urban margins, interfere in electoral politics, and control a variety of profitable criminal trades. Gabriel’s thesis traces the historical and contemporary parallels between violent law-enforcement conduct and illicit profiteering which allow police officers to become important stakeholders in criminal economies and in irregular forms of political rule.
His thesis has now been published in the Bulletin of Latin American Research.
Prior to starting at the Department in 2020, Gabriel worked in the corporate intelligence sector in the US and the UK and was also a researcher at the Center for the Study of Violence at the University of São Paulo.
He is currently the Regional Director of the Amazon Basin at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), where he conducts research regarding the impact of organised crime on environmental harms in the rainforest and provides policy guidance to local and international government stakeholders.
Gabriel offers this advice to prospective and current students:
Trust your instincts and be kind to yourself! Having just finished I can attest that the DPhil throws many challenges in your direction, so it is important to take ownership of your own work and always keep in mind that the opportunity to undertake your own thesis project about a subject you’re (hopefully) passionate about makes the challenging moments worthwhile.
Oxford Sociology is an amazing academic environment, which will hold you to the very highest standards and provide you with an amazing network of scholars. Make sure to enjoy this academic environment as much as possible, because the DPhil will truly go by in a flash.
Since joining the Department in 2021, Xinyi Zhao's research has focused on gender inequality in scientific production within the contexts of globalisation and digitalisation, through a series of empirical studies.
The first two examine international scholarly migration from a gender perspective, while the third focuses on gender differences in early-career researchers' online visibility and self-promotion behaviour, evaluating their impact on scientific outcomes.
The fourth investigates gendered work-family conflicts in academia, analysing the timing of doctoral education and parenthood and their influence on academic performance. Overall, the thesis provides a comprehensive perspective on the gendered structures shaping contemporary academic environments.
Xinyi's research has been published in journals including Sustainability, PNAS and Scientometrics, and has received widespread media coverage. She is currently working on a chapter for the forthcoming Research Handbook on Digital Sociology (Edward Elgar Publishing).
Xinyi is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Adaptive Rationality Center, part of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. She hopes her future work will advance the understanding of gender disparities in academia and address broader demographic questions related to social inequality and social dynamics.
Sharing her experience, Xinyi said:
Time flies so fast, and I truly cherish every moment I spent at Oxford. Looking back, I’ve realised that the most meaningful part of the journey wasn’t just about finishing the PhD—it was about the people I met, the challenges I embraced, and the lessons I learned along the way.
We wish Xinyi and Gabriel every success in their future careers and look forward to following their accomplishments.
