About me

Welcome! I am a PhD student in Comparative Politics at Cornell University’s Department of Government. My research centers on social movements, electoral behavior, populism, and public opinion, with a regional focus on Latin America and Southern Europe. My work examines how ordinary people respond to crises of political representation, and how those crises reshape broader political attitudes and identities. I am particularly interested in the interaction between contentious and institutional behavior. Methodologically, I rely primarily on survey research and statistical modeling, but I am committed to a multi-method approach that brings in qualitative interviews and historical analysis to capture the complexity underlying these phenomena.

During the 2025-26 academic year I will be visiting the Institute of Political Science of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and conducting fieldwork in Chile.

At Cornell, I am a graduate fellow at the Center on Global Democracy. My research has also been generously supported by the Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, the Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS), the American Political Science Association (APSA), and the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES).

Before starting my doctoral studies, I earned a MSc in Political Science and Political Economy from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BSc in Sociology from Universidad de Chile, both with the highest distinction. I was a research assistant at the Laboratory for the Study of the Far-Right (Ultra-Lab/UDP-PUC), the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC-COES), and the Social Psychology Laboratory (PUC).

Feel free to contact me at ras647 [at] cornell [dot] edu