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Current Fellows

Meet the 2023-24 Fellows

Distinguished Fellow

  • Ambassador Thomas A. Shannon Jr.

    Ambassador Thomas A. Shannon Jr.

    Ambassador Shannon is a Senior International Policy Advisor at Arnold & Porter. Prior to joining the private sector, Ambassador Shannon spent nearly 35 years in the Foreign Service and served 6 U.S. presidents and 11 secretaries of state.

    Ambassador Shannon served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. During his tenure as Under Secretary, he was in charge of bilateral and multilateral foreign policymaking and implementation, and oversaw diplomatic activity globally and in U.S. missions to international organizations. Prior to his 2016 appointment by President Obama as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Shannon was the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil. He also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs (2005-2009), Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council (2003-2005), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State (2002-2003) and Director of Andean Affairs (2001-2002). From 2000-2001, he was U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, with the rank of Ambassador. During his career, Ambassador Shannon served in the U.S. Foreign Service at embassies in Guatemala, Brazil, South Africa and Venezuela.

In Residence: Predoctoral Students

  • Guadalupe Chavez

    Guadalupe Chavez

    Ph.D. Candidate, University of Oxford Department of Politics & International Relations

    she/her | Email@Chz_guadalupe | LinkedIn

    Research Project: Back to the Homeland? The Politics of Return Migration in Mexico (1930 to 2018)

    Residency: Sept.2023 – May 2024

    Research Interests: International migration, qualitative methods, comparative government, social movements

  • Yaredh Marín Vázquez

    Yaredh Marín Vázquez

    Ph.D. Candidate, El Colegio de Michoacán

    she/her | Email | Site

    Research Topic: Practicas de partería en México y la frontera. Material analítico de formación para y por
    parteras profesionales en casas de partería. // Midwifery practices in Mexico and the border. Analytical
    training material for and by professional midwives in casas de partería.

    Project Title: Germinar y sostener la vida en pandemia. Experiencias reproductivas y de
    cuidados de mujeres en México.

    Residency: Sept. – December 2023

    Research Interests: Sexual and reproductive health, midwifery, migration, violence, pandemic, futures (dystopias/utopias)

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    Cordelia Rizzo

    Ph.D. Candidate, Northwestern University

    she/her | Email | @cordeliarizzo | LinkedIn

    Research Topic: Performing Touch as Political Resistance in Militarized Mexico

    Residency: Jan. – June 2024

    Research Interests: Theories of performance, qualitative methods, decolonial feminisms, critical phenomenology

     

     

In Residence: Professors

  • Antonella Bandiera

    Antonella Bandiera

    Assistant Professor, ITAM

    she/her | Email

    Research Topic: Migration and Human Trafficking in Mexico

    Residency: Sept. 2023 – June 2024

    Research Interests: Comparative political economy, comparative politics, Latin America, development

  • Ciro Murayama

    Ciro Murayama

    Professor of Economics, National Autonomous University of Mexico

    Email@CiroMurayamaMx

    Project Title: Democracy, Demography and Economy: Mexico in the XXI Century

    Residency: Sept. 2023 – June 2024

    Research Interests: Democracy, economics of welfare (health economics, economics of education, labor economics)

  • Alejandro Olayo-Méndez

    Alejandro Olayo-Méndez

    Assistant Professor, Boston College School of Social Work

    he/him | Email | @OlayoMendez | LinkedIn 

    Research Topic: Migrants' Digital Practices, and Perceived Health, Mental Health, and Social Support Needs along the Migration Route and in Border Towns in Latin America

    Residency: Fall 2023

    Research Interests: Humanitarian assistance, refugees, migration, mental health

  • Sandra Rebok

    Sandra Rebok

    Researcher and Historian of Science, UC San Diego

    Email

    Research Topic: West of The Revolution: Epistemological Processes in the American Southwest and Their Role In U.S. Expansion, 1776-1848

    Residency: Sept. 2023 – June 2024

    Research Interests: Exploration voyages (18-19th century), science and empire, intellectual networks, science diplomacy, entangled history, global history, U.S. westward expansion, New Spain, Southwest

Non-Resident Fellows: Predoctoral Students

  • Angie Torres-Beltrán

    Angie Torres-Beltrán

    Ph.D. Candidate, Cornell University Department of Government

    she/her | Email | @angietorresbel | LinkedIn

    Research Topic: Three Essays on Gender, Violence, and the State

    Residency: Jan. – March 2024

    Research Interests: Gender, violence, political behavior, institutions, justice, state development

  • Caitlyn Yates

    Caitlyn Yates

    Ph.D. Candidate, University of British Columbia

    she/her | Email | @yatescait | LinkedIn

    Research Topic: Migrantship: Trans-continental Mobility Strategies to Navigate Illegalization and Otherness in the Americas

    Residency: March – June 2024

    Research Interests: Human security, transit migration, organized crime, migrant facilitation and borders in Mexico and Panama

Non-Resident Fellows: Postdoctoral Scholars and Professors

  • David Barkin

    David Barkin

    Distinguished Professor, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitnana

    Email

    Research Topic: Builidng New Worlds

    Research Interests: Radical ecological economics, post-capitalist societies

  • Hannah Baron

    Hannah Baron

    Postdoctoral Fellow, Tulane University Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR)

    she/her | Email | Site | LinkedIn

    Research Topic: Lynching and the State in Mexico

    Residency: 2021 – 2023

    Research Interests: Criminal violence, political violence, vigilantism, human rights, research ethics, democratic backsliding

  • Rebecca Bell-Martin

    Rebecca Bell-Martin

    Assistant Professor of Political Science, el Tecnológico de Monterrey

    she/her | Email | @rbellmartin

    Research Topic: Violence, Empathy and Civic Engagement in Mexico

    Residency: Sept. 2023 – May 2024

    Research Interests: The politics of criminal violence, democratization and political participation in Latin America, political behavior during violence

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    Alejandro Díaz-Bautista

    Professor of International Economics and Researcher, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte

    Email | LinkedIn

    Research Topic: Economic Integration Between Mexico and the United States during NAFTA and USMCA

    Residency: Sept. – Dec. 2023

    Research Interests: International economics, industrial organization, energy economics and economic growth, with special interest in the United States and Mexico border regions

  • James Gerber

    James Gerber

    Emeritus Professor of Economics, San Diego State University; and Non-resident Scholar, Rice University Center for U.S. and Mexico

    he/him | Email

    Research Topic: The Economic History of the U.S.-Mexico Income Gap

    Residency: Sept. 2023 – March 2024

    Research Interests: U.S.-Mexico economic relations; the economics of the U.S.-Mexico border

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    Matthew Ingram

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    Gail Mummert

    Researcher Professor, El Colegio de Michoacán

    she/her | Email

    Research Topic: Entanglements: Transnational Families and Nation-States Across Continents

    Research Interests: Gender dynamics in migrant families, transformations in intergenerational relationships, longitudinal and life course methodologies

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    Gabriela Torres-Masuera

    Professor, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superios en Antropología Social

    she/her | Email

    Research Topic: The Neoliberal Afterlife of Ejido Communal Lands: Revealing the Spectrum of Privatization

    Residency: Jan. – March 2024

    Research Interests: Anthropology of property and development, landgrabbings, rural studies, judicialization of politics, governance of commons