Mayra Ortiz Ocaña

Areas of Interest: Law and politics, human rights, Latin American politics, qualitative methods

I am a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. I am a Kellogg Institute for International Studies PhD Fellow. My research agenda examines the intersection of law and politics, institutions, access to justice, 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 and the Notre Dame Violence and Transitional Justice Lab at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Additionally, I am a research fellow at Documenta desde Abajo (Document from below), an interdisciplinary project currently working on a database about violence and responses to it in the Mexican state of Guerrero. I used to work as a research associate at the Observatory on Disappearances and Impunity in Mexico (ODIM), researching criminal investigations and judgments on enforced disappearances in Mexico and contextual analysis regarding disappearances in the northeast of Mexico.

In my dissertation, I intend to explore the factors enhancing the performance of prosecution offices in Latin America. Specifically, how specialized prosecution offices have been able to decrease impunity in some countries and not in others.

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