Denise Dresser

Division of Social Sciences
Department of Political Science

Denise Dresser

Full time professor
Sabbatical

Denise Dresser is a professor of political science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), where she has taught Comparative Politics, Political Economy, and Mexican Politics since 1991. Dr. Dresser is the author of numerous publications on Mexican Politics and U.S.-Mexico relations including Neopopulist Solutions to Neoliberal Problems: Mexico's National Solidarity Program, "Exporting Conflict: Transboundary Consequences of Mexican Politics," "Treading Lightly and Without a Stick: International Actors and the Promotion of Democracy in Mexico," "Falling From the Tightrope: The Political Economy of the Mexican Crisis,” and "Mexico: Dysfunctional Democracy," in Jorge Domínguez and Michael Shifter (eds.), Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. She has published articles in the Journal of Democracy, Current History, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics and Foreign Policy.

She writes a political column for the Mexican newspaper Reforma, Proceso and was the host of the political talk shows "Entreversiones" and “El País de Uno” on Mexican television. She is a Contributing Editor at the Los Angeles Times, has contributed numerous opinion pieces to La Opinion, and is a frequent commentator on Mexican politics in the U.S. and Canadian media. She has also worked as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program, Barings Research and the Bank of Montreal. Dr. Dresser has been a member of the Research Council of the Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy, the World Academy of Arts and Science, the advisory board of Trans-National Research Corporation, the editorial board of the Latin American Research Review, the advisory board of Human Rights Watch, the Global Affairs Board at Occidental College, the board of the General Service Foundation and the editorial committee of the Fondo de Cultura Económica. She also served on the Citizens’ Committee in charge of investigating Mexico’s dirty war. She was also on the board of the Human Rights Commission for Mexico City.

Dr. Dresser earned her Ph.D. in Politics at Princeton University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, after completing her undergraduate work at El Colegio de México. She has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Institute for the Study of World Politics, the Center for International Studies at Princeton University, and the Organization of American States. In 1993, she was given the Junior Third World Scholar award by the International Studies Association. She has taught at Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Dresser has been a Senior Fellow at the School of Public Policy at UCLA, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington D.C., and a Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar.

She edited a bestselling collection of essays by prominent Mexican women entitled Gritos y susurros: experiencias intempestivas de 38 mujeres (Grijalbo 2004), and produced a television documentary based on the book. Her most recent publication, in collaboration with novelist Jorge Volpi, is a book of political satire México: lo que todo ciudadano quisiera (no) saber de su patria (Santillana 2006). She has been named one of the 300 most influential people in Mexico by the magazine Líderes Mexicanos and she won the National Journalism Award in 2010.

In 2012, she wrote the book “El País de Uno, Reflexiones para entender y cambiar a México” which became one of the best sellers books during all 2012, the kind of book that is a MUST for everyone interested in Mexico. And his latest book, ¿Qué sigue? 20 lecciones para ser ciudadano ante un país en riesgo, is a manual for exercising courageous and clear-headed citizenship in the face of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s authoritarianism and any future Tlatoani. It contains recommendations for resisting, rebuilding, and creating possible and sustainable futures.

Academic Studies

BA in International Relations, Colegio de México
MA in Political Science, Princeton University, USA
PhD in Political Science, Princeton University, USA

Contact

55 5628 4000 ext. 3761

Topics of Interest

  • Contemporary Mexican Politics

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