Dissertation Project

Three Essays on Gender, Violence, and the State

My dissertation is about how the state influences individuals’ political behavior through gendered practices embedded within institutions and its actors. Using survey experiments, interviews, and analysis of large sets of micro-data on crime to study gender-based violence in Mexico, the findings challenge conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between gender, violence, and the state. Laws, policies, and institutions that assist women vary greatly in their institutional effectiveness and thus pose divergent outcomes for women and victims. The gendered nature of some institutions may discourage political participation, whereas other institutions may bolster engagement. These findings contribute new insights to theories of institutions, victimization, and political participation.

My dissertation work has been supported by the following research initiatives:

• American Political Science Association

  • Comparative Politics Section

  • Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior Section

  • Fund for Latino Scholarship

  • Minority Fellowship Program

  • Public Scholarship Program

  • Ralph Bunche Summer Institute

  • Women, Gender, & Politics Research Section

• Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program Research Fellowship Program

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

• The Empirical Study of Gender Research Network

• University of California, San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies Visiting Fellowship Program

• United States Institute of Peace & Minerva Research Initiative Peace and Security Fellowship Program