Dr Maryhen Jiménez

I am a Research Associate at the Department of Politics and International Relations and the Oxford School of Global at Area Studies at the University of Oxford. My research interests include authoritarian politics, repression, democratization, opposition movements, and democratic resistance, with a regional focus on Latin America. I have also research and teaching interests in comparative politics, Latin American politics, authoritarian politics, and qualitative and mixed methods research methodology. 

I hold a DPhil (PhD, 2022) from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and an MPhil in Latin American Studies from the Latin American Centre at Oxford (2015). I previously earned a BA in Political Science from Goethe University Frankfurt (distinction).

​

My current research agenda examines the dynamics of partisan and non-partisan oppositions in authoritarian regimes. It focuses on how oppositions form, the strategies they employ to contest authoritarian rule, and the factors driving their coordination or fragmentation. I also study internal dynamics of authoritarian ruling coalitions. Over the past decade, I have conducted extensive fieldwork and +700 interviews across the Americas and Europe, including in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain, Peru, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. 

I am committed to publishing both in English and Spanish. My work has appeared in Political Studies, Cambridge University Press, Revista de Ciencia Política, Revista Elecciones, and the Latin American Studies Association.

I have received multiple competitive awards and fellowships in support of my research, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, a Fritz Thyssen Research Fellowship, and several awards from the Cusanuswerk Foundation. Likewise, I have received multiple awards, including the 2021 Political Science Association’s Lord Bryce Prize for best dissertation in comparative politics in 2021 and an honourable mention from LASA’s Venezuelan Studies Section. 

I have been a visiting researcher at Princeton University and CIDE, German Institute for Global and Area Studies, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, and the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch in Washington (DC), and the Wilson Centre (DC).

I am committed to making my research accessible to broader audiences and actively engage in public debates. I have contributed articles to prominent outlets such as El País, Verfassungsblog, Nueva Sociedad, Americas Quarterly, openDemocracy, and Latinoamérica 21. My expertise has also been featured in interviews with leading media, including NBC News, the BBC, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, Reuters, and Bloomberg.