Mayra Ortiz Ocaña

Biography

I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame with a minor in Peace Studies and a Kellogg Institute for International Studies PhD Fellow. My research agenda examines the intersection of law and politics, institutions, access to justice, human rights, and violence in Latin America. Additionally, I am interested in qualitative methods and ethics around data collection techniques.

I am part of the Notre Dame Reparations Design and Compliance, the Notre Dame Violence and Transitional Justice Lab, and the Notre Dame Eliminating Violence Aganist Women (E-VAW) at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Additionally, I am a research fellow at Documenta desde Abajo (Document from below), an interdisciplinary project working on violence and reponses from civil society in the Mexican state of Guerrero. I used to work as a research associate at the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico (ODIM), focusing on criminal investigations and judgments on enforced disappearances in Mexico.

In my dissertation, I am exploring the factors behind the effectiveness of Public Prosecution Offices in Latin America in investigating the violence perpetrated by organized crime. My research looks at why prosecutors choose to investigate violence and what factors allow those investigations to be successful. I will use a mixed-methods approach, conducting case studies in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico and creating an origional regional dataset to test the variables shaping prosecutorial effectiveness quantitatively.

Before coming to Notre Dame, I received a BA in Law from the Law School at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and an MA in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame.

Areas of Interest

Law and politics, criminal justice, mixed-methods