Dean's Research Associate Angie Torres-Beltran wins multiple awards for dissertation papers

February 19, 2025

The International Studies Association announced their 2024-2025 awards this week and included three awards for MSU PLS Dean's Research Associate Angie Torres-Beltran.

Her dissertation essay "Punishment Preferences in Gendered Settings: Evidence from Mexico" was named the Women's Caucus Graduate Student Paper Award by the Women's Caucus for International Studies (WCIS), ISA. It was also given the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Best Graduate Student Paper Award by the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section of ISA.

A second essay "The Persistence of Gendered States" was given the Frances V. Harbour Graduate Paper award from the International Ethics Section of ISA.

Dr. Torres-Beltran received her PhD from the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her dissertation, "Three Essays on Gender, Violence and the State," examined how gender-based violence and interactions with state institutions can hinder women's formal political participation but, at the same time, mobilize their informal political participation.

"My dissertation is about how the state influences individuals’ political behavior through gendered practices embedded within institutions and its actors. Using survey experiments, interviews, and analysis of large sets of micro-data on crime to study gender-based violence in Mexico, the findings challenge conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between gender, violence, and the state. Laws, policies, and institutions that assist women vary greatly in their institutional effectiveness and thus pose divergent outcomes for women and victims. The gendered nature of some institutions may discourage political participation, whereas other institutions may bolster engagement. These findings contribute new insights to theories of institutions, victimization, and political participation,"" she wrote.

For the 2023-2024 academic year, Dr. Torres-Beltran was a Predoctoral Fellow with the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego; Research Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School; and a United States Institute of Peace Scholar. She is also a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Research Affiliate with the Gender and Security Sector Lab and the Eliminating Violence Against Women Lab.

Her research examines the political causes and consequences of gender-based violence, with an emphasis on political behavior and institutions in conflict-affected countries. In other work, she studies the role of domestic and international actors on violence and the intersection of gender, public opinion, and civic engagement. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in International Studies Quarterly, PS: Political Science & Politics, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and has been featured in major media outlets including The Washington Post. Her research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the American Political Science Association, and the Empirical Study of Gender Research Network.