By Juan Romero, Undergraduate student in the UT Government Department and Philosophy Department
One of my first observations on this adventure was that Panama City’s metro system does not cover the whole metropolitan area — something I initially saw as inconvenient. However, Panama’s metro reaches further into the periphery than any system I had seen before. Interestingly, these are not the corridors only for the upscale Bella Vista or the banking quarter; these are the places where daily commuters wake before sunrise, hauling produce onto buses and up and down escalators. I hadn’t expected this observation to become as significant over the next two months as it did. Every bit we learned helped form an understanding of how the system was built and what it is: a materialization of the very democratic values we were here to study.
Continue reading Where the Numbers Come From →
By Bela Madrid, Undergraduate student at the UT Butler School of Music
Latin America has always felt like a destination that was somehow both far away and familiar at the same time. The opportunity to live and work here has always been enticing. Coming from a background studying music, I am used to exploring different cultures, histories, and political environments through emotion, storytelling, and poetry. Engaging in areas of social research and data science felt somewhat outside my scope of expertise, but I have come to realize it’s simply the other side of the same coin. As we round out week five, I have found myself reflecting on my experiences in Panama and feeling excited to see what month two has in store.
Continue reading Evidence-based Data to Advance Policy in Latin America →
By Veronica Martin, Graduate of the UT Government Department
My work at CID Gallup has been marked by a significant amount of creative autonomy, an abundance of meticulous political research, and an evolving adoration for democracy and national security. At once, we were split into two groups with the task of developing a research study on one of two topics: the aging Panamanian population or the “sandwich generation” of women caring for both children and aging parents. Given an impressive amount of autonomy with our studies, our group of four ventured out to crack open the pensions and retirement systems of Panama by analyzing demographic statistics, literature, and fiscal data. While the research was quite dense, I can now answer any question any skeptic may have about Panamanian retirement (when it comes up in normal everyday conversation, which is often).
Continue reading National Security, Smuggling, and US-Panama Relations →
By María Mercedes Gómez, Graduate student at the UT Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies
What is democracy? What is the relationship between democracy, security, and gender? This summer working with International IDEA has made me consider deeper ways to understand these concepts. Although I am Colombian and I have lived in Mexico many years of my life, living in Panama has taught me that every Latin American country is unique. Every day has been a constant discovery—from learning how to take public transportation, which products are best in the grocery store, and how to dress for the office in a Central American country to learning how to interact with people from across Latin America in the office.
Continue reading Democracy, Gender, and Security →
A research exchange program at the University of Texas at Austin supporting student work abroad in democratic and constitutional development