MSC05 3070
Social Sciences Building 2059
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Phone: (505) 277-5104
Fax: (505) 277-2821
polsci@unm.edu
Email: malahtun@gmail.com
Curriculum Vitae
Mala Htun is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and her work has appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Latin American Research Review, and Politics and Gender, among other journals and edited volumes. Her article, “Is Gender Like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups” won the Heinz Eulau award from the American Political Science Association in 2005 and she has been supported by grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and National Security Education Program. A former fellow of the Kellogg Institute of the University of Notre Dame, the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard, and the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship in Japan, she holds a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard and a A.B. in international relations from Stanford.
Professor Htun’s scholarly work explores the question of when and why states grant liberal rights and otherwise promote the interests of historically oppressed groups such as women and ethnic and racial minorities. She is currently finishing her second book (Politics of Inclusion: Gender Quotas and Ethnic Reservations in Latin America, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) and working on her third. A collaboration with Laurel Weldon, this NSF-funded project explores women’s rights and gender equality policies through comparative analysis of 70 countries. Pieces of the project have appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, as a background paper for the World Bank’s World Development Report 2012, and will be published in American Political Science Review.
Professor Htun and co-author Juan Pablo Cassa's articule titled Poltical inclusion of marginalized reservations and gender parity in Bolivia, was published in Politics, Groups and Identities 2013. This research articule which "analyzes when and why marginalized groups gain access to political power", can be read in full here.
Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce, and the Family under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
“Does Women’s Presence Change Legislative Behavior? Evidence from Argentina.” Journal of Politics in Latin America (Forthcoming April 2013). Coauthored with Marina Lacalle and Juan Pablo Micozzi.
“Political Inclusion of Marginalized Groups: Gender Parity and Indigenous Reservations in Bolivia.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 1,1 (March 2013): 4-25. Coauthored with Juan Pablo Ossa.
“Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change: Combating Violence Against Women in Global Perspective.” Coauthored with Laurel Weldon. Accepted for publication in American Political Science Review (February 2012).
“State Power, Religion, and Women’s Rights: Comparative Analysis of Family Law,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 18, no. 1 (Winter 2011). Coauthored with Laurel Weldon.
“When do Governments Promote Women’s Rights? A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Sex Equality Policy,” Perspectives on Politics 8, no. 1 (March 2010). Coauthored with Laurel Weldon.
“Life, Liberty, and Family Values: Church and State in the Struggle Over Abortion in Latin America,” in Frances Hagopian, ed. Contemporary Catholicism, Religious Pluralism, and Democracy in Latin America (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009).
Political Inclusion: Women, Blacks, and Indigenous Peoples,” in Jorge Domínguez and Michael Shifter, eds. Constructing Democratic Governance, 3rd Edition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
“Gender, Parties, and Support for Equal Rights in the Brazilian Congress,” Latin American Politics and Society (Winter 2006). Coauthored with Tim Power.
“Gender Equality in Transition Polities: Comparative Perspectives on Cuba,” in Looking Forward: Cuba’s Democratic Transition, edited by Marifeli Pérez-Stable (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007; Spanish published edition by Editorial Colibrí, 2006).
“What It Means to Study Gender and the State,” Politics and Gender 1, no. 1 (Fall 2005).
“Women, Political Parties and Electoral Systems in Latin America,” in Women in Parliament. Beyond Numbers. A New Edition, eds. Julie Ballington and Azza Karam (Stockholm: International IDEA, 2005).
“Democracy and Political Inclusion: The Andes in Comparative Perspective,” in Nadan
do contra la corriente: Mujeres y cuotas políticas en los países andinos, ed. Magdalena León (Quito and Lima: UNIFEM, 2005).
“Is Gender Like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups,” Perspectives on Politics 2, no. 3 (September 2004). Winner of the Heinz Eulau Award from the American Political Science Association for the best article in the journal.
“From Racial Democracy to Affirmative Action: Changing State Policy on Race in Brazil,” Latin American Research Review 39, no. 1 (February 2004). Abridged version also published in: NACLA Report on the Americas (January-February 2005).