[1][2] She is a doctor in social anthropology at the University of São Paulo, full professor at the Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas in the same institution, and visiting professor (Global Scholar) at Princeton University.

[3][4] Her main fields of study are anthropology and history of 19th-century Brazil, focusing on the Brazilian Empire, social identity, slavery and race relations between White and Afro-Brazilian peoples.

[6] In 1986, she co-founded the Companhia das Letras publishing house with her husband Luis Schwarcz.

[7] She is a curator for the São Paulo Museum of Art,[8] and writes a column at the news website Nexo Jornal [pt].

[9] In 2024, Lilia was elected to occupy seat number 9 of the Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL).