Main Research Interest: Women and Politics in Latin America
Secondary Research Interests: Campaign Finance and Gender & Institutions
Dissertation
I am currently writing a dissertation about female political elites in the Dominican Republic. I am interested in understanding more detailed information about their experiences working the informal and formal political institutions around them. This interpretive qualitative project uses a feminist institutionalist approach to understand puzzles around women in electoral politics in Latin America.
Fulbright
From 2005-2006, I did Fulbright research in the Dominican Republic where I focused on Female Political Participation. During my research I interviewed female politicians, key governmental & non governmental organizations and observed a female candidate's congressional electoral campaign in order to better understand the complexity of Dominican female political representation. To learn more about my day to day encounters while in the Dominican Republic read Life of a Scholar, the blog I maintained during that time.
Below is an abstract that research in English & Español:
Abstract - Despite the historic negative perception of female political participation, many of these women have been essential to the freedom of their nations from authoritarian and dictatorship regimes. The Dominican Republic’s relationship to Latin America and the African Diaspora makes it a great country in which to explore this very idea. Through coursework, independent research and interviews, female political representation in the Dominican Republic was investigated using modern & traditional political science research methods from August 2005 until July 2006.
Resumen - A pesar de la percepción histórica negativa de la participación política femenina, las mujeres han sido esenciales en la libertad de sus naciones de régimen autoritario y dictadura. Esta investigación Fulbright trata a analizar la representación política de las mujeres dominicanas utilizando metodologías tradicionales y modernas de la ciencia política. La investigación tradicional enfoque en la historia para dar descripciones detalladas del desarrollo de las mujeres dominicanas en la política. La investigación moderna tiene un enfoque en el estudio del comportamiento político de individuos, de las elecciones legislativas y municipales de 2006 y de organizaciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales.
