Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez

Vanessa Navarro-Rodríguez is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on indigenous politics, comparative behavior, and identity politics. Her dissertation employs mixed methods to investigate how state-sponsored extraction impacts the identity and political behavior of indigenous people in Chile. Vanessa's research interests also extend to gender studies, particularly at the intersection of gender and security institutions. Her master's thesis examined the prevalence of sexual exploitation and abuse during UN peacekeeping operations. In 2019, she was among the first associates at the GSS lab, contributing to the development of the Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peacekeeping Methodology as part of the Elsie Initiative. Additionally, Vanessa is a research affiliate at both the UC Berkeley Center on the Politics of Development and the Centro de Políticas Públicas at Universidad Católica de Temuco. Before attending UC Berkeley, she graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Government. Her work has been supported by the UC Berkeley's Global, International, and Area Studies; the UC Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies; the UC Berkeley Mentored Research Award; the UC Berkeley Graduate School Chancellor’s Fellowship, and the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute.