Viri Rios

I belong to an emerging generation of scholars that rejects the commonly accepted idea that academia is inexorably detached from policy decisions and social mobilization. Instead, I rely on data analysis, research journalism, and close collaboration with academic peers, to advance an acute understanding of the pressing social problems of Mexico, my home country, and to encourage and publicize inadvertent solutions to them.

Using experimental and observational data, I analyze Mexico's political and economic reality, as well as its main challenges: economic inequality, political corruption, and criminal violence. I have published several peer-review papers at journals like The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Comparative Political Studies, Justice Quarterly, Latin American Research Review, Latin American Politics and Society, an edited book entitled #TheMissingReform about Rule of Law in Mexico. As professor, I teach public policy at Harvard Summer School and have been visiting assistant professor at Harvard and Purdue University.