Credit: E. Barham
Profile
Dr. Elena Barham joined the Chair of Political Science, International Relations as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in October 2024. Prior to that, she was awarded her PhD from Columbia University in 2024. Elena also holds an undergraduate degree (B.A.) from Northwestern University.
In her research, Elena studies the political economy of violence and state capacity with a regional focus on Latin America and the United States. Her work on violence studies the role of informal institutions -- such as social norms, collective governance practices, and criminal governance -- in shaping patterns of violence and victimization. Her research on state capacity studies the politics of state capacity formation in rural areas, with a focus on outcomes such as land conservation and property rights formation. Her work has been published in the Annual Review of Political Science, International Studies Quarterly, and World Politics, among other journals.
Publications
In Political Science:
"A Bargaining Theory of Criminal War,” with Sarah Z. Daly. International Studies Quarterly 68 no. 3 (September 2024): sqae083.
"Vaccine Diplomacy: How COVID-19 vaccine distribution increases trust in foreign governments in Latin America,” with Sarah Z. Daly, Julian Gerez, John Marshall, and Oscar Pocasangre. World Politics 75 no. 4 (October 2023): 826–875.
"Teaching the hidden curriculum in Political Science,” with Colleen Wood. PS: Political Science & Politics 55 no. 2 (2022): 324–328.
“Complicit states and the governing strategy of privilege violence: When weakness is not the problem,” with Rachel Kleinfeld. Annual Review of Political Science 21 (2018): 215–238.
In Other Fields:
"Messaging interventions that increase COVID-19 vaccine willingness in Latin America,” with Pablo Argote Tironi, Sarah Z. Daly, Julian Gerez, John Marshall and Oscar Pocasangre. pLoS ONE 16 no. 10 (2021): e0259059.
“The Shot, the message, and the messenger: COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in Latin America,” with Pablo Argote Tironi, Sarah Z. Daly, Julian Gerez, John Marshall and Oscar Pocasangre. npj Vaccines 6 (2021): Article no. 118.