Politics and Peer Review in AMLO’s Mexico

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Alissandra Stoyan and Carla Martinez Machain. They are, respectively, an assistant and an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. On February 21st, Mexico’s Fondo de Cultura Económica (a not-for-profit publisher partially funded by the Mexican Government that is often referred to as “El Fondo”) disbanded the editorial team of the Economics peer-reviewed journal El Trimestre Económico.  The journal’s editorial team had been composed of researchers representing Mexico’s top research universities, including CIDE, ITAM, UNAM, and the Universidad Iberoamericana. As of writing, the journal’s editorial team page on Continue reading Politics and Peer Review in AMLO’s Mexico

P.O.V.: Truth and Reconciliation in Chile

The PBS series, P.O.V., aired an excellent documentary Tuesday night called The Judge and The General.  This film tells the story of Juan Guzmán, a judge assigned to try criminal cases against members of Augusto Pinochet‘s regime in Chile.  Guzmán had been a supporter of Pinochet, and the film chronicles the information he uncovered while investigating these cases, and how he ultimately came to the realization that Pinochet’s legal immunity from prosecution was a huge hurdle toward Chile’s goal of truth and reconciliation.  From the P.O.V. synopsis: The Judge and the General follows the twists and turns of the efforts Continue reading P.O.V.: Truth and Reconciliation in Chile

What are you reading this summer?

Summers are a good time to catch up on some literature that has taken a back seat to the work that needs to get done during the semester. A colleague (Paola Fajardo) and I are planning on a summer reading group starting in July.  The goal is to become more familiar with human rights or repression literature from a comparative institutional perspective.  We both have background in the literature that tackles this subject matter with global analysis, so we’d like to turn our attention this summer to the nuts and bolts of repressive policy outcomes and the decision-making processes that Continue reading What are you reading this summer?

The APSA and AAAS Take Action to Free Jailed Political Scientist

The American Political Science Association is taking official action on behalf of Dr. Matrouk al-Faleh, a political scientist detained by the Saudi government.  You may have heard about this, especially if you’re a member of the Human Rights section of APSA; if you haven’t, here are some basic facts about Faleh and the consequences of his attempts to speak out against the Saudi monarchy, supplied by the Washington Post: Over the past year, Faleh has accused the Interior Ministry of disregarding laws that ban arrests without charge and guarantee the right to counsel. Faleh, 55, a dissident with a long Continue reading The APSA and AAAS Take Action to Free Jailed Political Scientist