Aiko Ikemura Amaral
Lecturer in International Development
Aiko joined King’s in 2022 as a Lecturer in International Development. Her research examines the intersections of race, class and gender, foregrounding everyday experiences of development in Latin America. Her PhD explored personal narratives of mobility and labour among Indigenous women working in urban street markets. More recently, her work has shifted to studying the relationship between urbanisation and food security in Brazil. Using qualitative methodologies, her lines of enquiry contribute to issues such as the racialisation of indigeneity and food practices in urban contexts, advancing a critical approach to mainstream views of development.
Research interests
Intersectional inequalities and identities
Urban indigeneity and social movements in Bolivia
Urban food security in Brazil
Popular economies and informal labour in Latin America
Career highlights
- Holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex, and an MSc in Politics from Universidade de São Paulo.
- Postdoctoral researcher at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre (2020-22) and currently Visiting Fellow at the Department of Geography, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
- Teaching Associate at the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge. Affiliate of the King's Brazil Institute.