Previous Career

Lúcia Cavalcanti de Albuquerque has had a successful career as an academic in the area of Psychology (Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil; Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, UK). Inspired by the tragic death by femicide of her sister Vera, Lucia’s trajectory involved research and community work in the prevention of family violence. She has published extensively under the name Lucia C.A. Williams, and her work was recipient of many awards, such as from PAHO (the World Health Organization branch for the Americas), in 2009: “Best Practices in Gender, Ethnicity and Health.” She founded, in 2001, the first shelter for abused women in Brazil on a non-capital city (Sao Carlos). 

When possible she combined her love for literature with her field of expertise in academia. Thus, she published an essay, in a case study format, on Virginia Woolf’s child sexual victimization and another on Nabokov’s visionary ideas on child sexual abuse. In addition, she published the children’s picture book A Terra dos Bons Pensamentos, in Brazil, which was written originally in English (The Land of Happy Thoughts), inspired by her work as a psychologist at the Toronto Board of Education in the 90s.