Isabel Laterzo

Isabel Laterzo is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been recognized as an Emerging Scholar (2023) by the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation and a Fulbright-Hays Fellow (2022). In the fall of 2025, she will transition to become an Assistant Professor at the LBJ School, and a member of the faculty (by courtesy) in both the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Department of Government. 

Her research delves into the politics of violence, crime, and policing, with a primary focus on Latin America. Key topics that drive her work include understanding how citizens and politicians respond to crime, the circumstances under which they favor approaches that protect or threaten human rights, and how identity factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, and age influence citizens' experiences with and responses to violence. Some of her work also focuses on public health in the region. 

Isabel's research has been published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, The Journal of Criminal Justice, The Journal of Politics in Latin America, and Revista Latinoamericana de Opinión Pública. Her research has also garnered attention in popular news outlets such as The Washington Post. Her work has been supported by the Brazilian Studies Association, the U.S. Department of State, and USAID, among other organizations.