#  Introducing the 2025–2026 DRCLAS Visiting Scholars and Fellows 

 





May 19, 2025

 

 

 ![2025-26 DRCLAS Visiting Scholars Announcement](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/2025-05/DRCLAS%20VISITING%20SCHOLARS%20%26%20FELLOWS%202025-2026%20%281%29.jpg)

 

Each year, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies brings leading scholars from across the Americas to Harvard to pursue independent research, collaborate with faculty and students, and contribute to our vibrant intellectual community. This 2025-2026 academic year, DRCLAS is proud to welcome a dynamic cohort whose work spans sociology, social theory, economics, anthropology, and political science—advancing new understandings of the region’s most pressing challenges and enduring questions.

As one of the Center’s longest-standing initiatives, the Visiting Scholars and Fellows Program reflects DRCLAS’s commitment to hosting Latin American and Caribbean scholars to foster global academic exchange and facilitate vigorous debate. Through public talks, interdisciplinary dialogue, and direct engagement with the Harvard community, these scholars bring critical regional and disciplinary insights to urgent issues.

From the role of violence in shaping urban life in Mexico to the legacies of development theory, from Indigenous autonomy to gender justice in carceral systems, this year’s cohort embodies the diversity of perspectives and depth of expertise that define DRCLAS. Through events, classroom discussions, and collaborative research, they will help lead a year of exciting, cross-border dialogue.

**Meet the 2025–2026 Visiting Scholars and Fellows:**

**Central America Visiting Scholar**

**Christopher Carter,** *Assistant Professor of Politics, University of Virginia* (Spring 2026)  
**Country:** United States  
**Project Title:** *Democratizing Political Parties*

Christopher Carter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and John L. Nau III Assistant Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy at the University of Virginia. He is also a Research Associate at the Center on the Politics of Development at the University of California, Berkeley.

His research examines the historical foundations of Indigenous groups' demands for autonomy in the Americas. His book, *The Long Shadow of Extraction: The Origins of Indigenous Autonomy Demands*, will be released with Princeton University Press in summer 2025. The research for his book project won the 2020 APSA Best Fieldwork Award and the 2021 Juan Linz Prize for Best Dissertation in the Comparative Study of Democracy. His work on Latin American politics has been published or is forthcoming in American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Perspectives on Politics, Party Politics, and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.

**Cisneros Visiting Scholar**

**Nicole Jenne,** *Associate Professor, Institute of Political Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile* (Spring 2026)  
**Country:** Germany, Chile  
**Project Title:** *The Management of Territorial Conflict in South America: How the Lack of State Capacity Prompted States to Avoid Interstate War*

Nicole Jenne is associate professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Institute of Political Science. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the European University Institute, Florence.

Her research is on different aspects of international security in South America and the Asia Pacific. She has published widely on security cooperation, peacekeeping and the changing use of state militaries, among other topics. While at DRCLAS, she will work on a book project that examines the impact of state capacity on peripheral states’ handling of territorial disputes. Nicole serves as co-editor of the journal Contemporary Security Policy.

**De Fortabat Visiting Scholar**

**Ana Lucía Grondona,** *Professor of Sociology, University of Buenos Aires* (Fall 2025)  
**Country:** Argentina  
**Project Title:** *Gino Germani: The Harvard Years (1966–1979)*

Ana Grondona holds a degree in sociology and a Ph.D. in social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, where she is currently a professor. She is also a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET). Her work focuses on the history of Latin American debates on development and modernization, examining the circulation of ideas from the periphery to the center. She directs two documentary collections: the Carlos Mallmann Archive at the Floreal Gorini Cultural Center of Cooperation and the Gino Germani Archive at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. Her main publications include *Saber de la pobreza: Discursos expertos y subclases en la Argentina entre 1956 y 2006* (2014), *Estilos de desarrollo y buen vivir* (as editor, 2016), and *Genealogía, crítica y ensayo* (as coordinator, 2022).

She has held international research and teaching positions at the Università degli Studi Roma Tre (November 2024), the Luigi Sturzo Institute (Rome, 2022-2023), and the Fondazione Ugo Spirito e Renzo De Felice (2016, 2017, 2018). She also participated in the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) Summer Program in Social Sciences (2018-2019).

**Fundación México en Harvard-Antonio Madero Visiting Scholar**

**Ana Villarreal,** *Associate* *Professor of Sociology, Boston University* (Fall 2025-Spring 2026)  
**Country:** Mexico

**Project Title:** *Civic Fronts: Violence and Social Urbanism in Latin America*

Ana Villarreal is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University. Her research draws on ethnography and social theory to advance sociological understandings of violence, emotions, urban dynamics and their aggravating impact on socio-spatial divides in Latin America.

Her first book *The Two Faces of Fear: Violence and Inequality in the Mexican Metropolis* (Oxford University Press, 2024)draws on two years of qualitative fieldwork conducted during a major turf war in Monterrey, Mexico to trace the far-reaching impact of fear and violence on social ties, daily practices, and everyday spaces. The book brings two seemingly contradictory faces of fear into focus—its ability to both isolate and concentrate people and resources, deepening inequality. It puts forth a new approach to the study of emotion and provides tangible evidence of how quickly fear worsens inequality beyond Mexico and the "war on drugs." Articles from this project are also published in *Sociological Theory, Emotions and Society,* and *City & Community.*

Her next project investigates the rapid diffusion of Colombian social urbanism amid escalating violence in urban Latin America. Drawing on a multi-sited ethnography of urban planning practices in Colombian and Mexican cities, this project will trace the transnational exchanges of policies, professionals, and powerful economic elites seeking to regain territorial control amid new threats in the region.

Professor Villarreal serves on the editorial board of *City & Community* and the Faculty Advisory Board of the BU Initiative on Cities*.* She teaches courses on social theory, qualitative methods, and urban inequality in the Americas.

**Lemann Visiting Scholar**

**Vanessa Sander,** *Postdoctoral Researcher, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG)* (Spring 2026)  
**Country:** Brazil  
**Project Title:** *“A Suicide Wave in the LGBT Wing”: Gender, Sexuality, and the Management of Life and Death in the Prison System*

Vanessa Sander is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Studies on Crime and Public Security (CRISP) at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Her broader work addresses issues related to the intersections between gender, sex work, and the prison system. She conducted ethnographic research in prostitution areas and prison units between 2012 and 2025.

Her doctoral research, completed at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), resulted in the book *The Mermaids’ Wing: An Ethnographic Study on the Criminalization and Incarceration of Travestis and Trans Women*, published in 2024. Her work was awarded the Anthropology and Human Rights Prize (2022), granted by the Brazilian Anthropological Association (ABA).

**Luksic Visiting Scholar**

**Andrés Barrios Fernández,** *Assistant Professor and Director, Human Development Lab, Universidad de los Andes* (Fall 2025)  
**Country:** Chile  
**Project Title:** *Diversifying Political Elites: Selective Universities and the Formation of Political Leaders*

Andrés Barrios Fernández is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Human Development Lab at the Universidad de los Andes, Chile. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics and completed a Postdoc at the Department of Economics of MIT in 2022.

Barrios Fernández’s research covers different topics in labor and public economics, but he primarily works on the economics of education. Through his research, he aims to contribute to understanding and tackling inequality in educational attainment and in access to opportunities. His work has been published in leading journals such as The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Economic Review, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and the Journal of Labor Economics.

**Santo Domingo Visiting Scholar**

**Bitia Salas García,** *Professor of Economics, University of Piura* (Fall 2025)  
**Country:** Peru  
**Project Title:** *Paving the Road to Human Capital Accumulation? Assessing Parents’ Response to a Postsecondary Scholarship*

Vania Bitia Salas García is a Professor at the Economics Department at Universidad de Piura, located at Peru’s northern border. Professor Salas holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, a M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Economics from The Pennsylvania State University.

Her research examines topics related to rural development, migration and gender equality. In her recent research, she focuses on the impact of social protection programs on human capital. Professor Salas has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and won research grants from prestigious research centers in Peru. In 2023, she was recognized among the top eight women in economics most cited in Peru according to Research Papers in Economics.



 

 

 



 

 

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