I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford (2022-2025). Before that, I was a Fritz Thyssen Award Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Latin American Centre (2021-2022). My research interests include authoritarian politics, repression, opposition movements, exiled politics, and democratic resistance, with regional interests in Latin America. I have also research and teaching interests in qualitative and mixed methods research methodology.
I hold a DPhil (PhD, 2020) from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and an MPhil in Latin American Studies from the Latin American Centre at Oxford (2015). I previously earned a BA in Political Science from Goethe University Frankfurt (distinction). My doctoral dissertation received the 2021 PSA Lord Bryce Prize for best dissertation in comparative politics.
My current research agenda examines the dynamics of partisan and non-partisan oppositions in authoritarian regimes. It focuses on how oppositions form, the strategies they employ, and the factors driving their coordination or fragmentation. She also studies the motives and implications of elite defections under authoritarian rule. Over the past decade, I have conducted extensive fieldwork and over 700 interviews across the Americas and Europe, including in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain, Peru, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
I have been a visiting researcher at Princeton University and CIDE, German Institute for Global and Area Studies, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, and the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch in Washington (DC), and the Wilson Center (DC). My research has received the support from the EU Horizon 2020, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung Foundation, and Cusanuswerk Foundation.
At Oxford, I have taught Introduction to Politics as a Lecturer in Politics at Lincoln College (2019) and Latin American Politics as a tutor for several colleges. I have also supervised graduate students and taught qualitative research methods and Andean Politics at the Latin American Centre, Oxford.
I am committed to making my research accessible to broader audiences and actively engage in public debates. I have contributed articles to prominent outlets such as El País, Verfassungsblog, Nueva Sociedad, Americas Quarterly, openDemocracy, and Latinoamérica 21. My expertise has also been featured in interviews with leading media, including NBC News, the BBC, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, Reuters, and Bloomberg.