About Me

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR) at Tulane University. I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2024, following an MA in Political Science from the same institution and an MA in Sociology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

I study comparative political psychology and behavior, focusing on democratic representation in fragile institutional contexts. These environments are characterized by unstable party systems, weak partisan organizations, and low institutional trust. My work examines both the demand side—how citizens process political information and develop ideological preferences—and the supply side—how parties compete for political support in these challenging environments. My research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, Party Politics, the European Journal of Political Research, the Journal of Politics in Latin America, and the Latin American Research Review.

I coordinate the Chapel Hill Expert Survey - Latin America (CHES-LA) with Jonathan Hartlyn and Cecilia Martínez-Gallardo. The initial 2020-2021 wave surveyed 160 experts who evaluated 112 political parties and 13 presidents across 12 Latin American countries. Our current 2024-2025 wave significantly expands coverage to 18 countries and broadens the scope to examine critical issues of populism and democratic commitment. Data from the first wave is publicly available here.

I also serve as Principal Investigator for the Chapel Hill Expert Survey - United States (CHES-US), with Ryan Bakker, Royce Carroll, Christopher Hare, and Alexa Federice. This project extends the CHES methodology to capture party positions on both ideological and non-ideological dimensions in the American context, with additional focus on state-level political dynamics and subnational party positions.

My current research projects explore how citizens process political information in both Latin America and the United States, the psychological underpinnings of clientelism, and party system dimensionality in Latin America.