By Leah Tharakan, Undergraduate student in UT’s Government Department, Sociology Department, and Economics Department
Just weeks before International IDEA marked its 30th anniversary, I walked into its Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office in Panama City’s Financial District—an office tucked above a busy thoroughfare of honking taxis and fondas, where regional democracy is studied in quiet persistence. It’s here, in the hushed office above the commotion, that I joined the Latin America and Caribbean team of International IDEA as an Embedded Scholar. I hadn’t arrived in the middle of a national election or political upheaval. Instead, my arrival came during a slower season, one marked by IDEA’s 30th anniversary and a moment to take stock of what three decades of democracy assistance has built.
Continue reading Digital Violence, Women’s Leadership, and Democratic Participation in Latin America