This story originally appeared on the UT College of Liberal Arts website. A version of this story also appeared later on the UT Texas Global website.
Students from The University of Texas at Austin will spend the summer in Central and South America working on democracy and election assistance through a new partnership between UT’s Department of Government and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).
The collaboration was launched during the 2022-23 academic year with creation of UT’s Embedded Scholars Program, an innovative research fellowship designed to launch students’ work and research in the field while supporting democratic development in Latin America. The program is led by Zachary Elkins, associate professor of government, and Ashley Moran, government lecturer, and was developed in partnership with International IDEA and the Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP), a comprehensive resource of data on the world’s constitutions cofounded by Elkins.
“Democracy globally faces its gravest challenges in decades,” says Moran. “Yet national and international actors are working tirelessly to advance democratic principles and making real gains. This partnership with IDEA provides an unparalleled opportunity for the next generation of democracy and development professionals to apply their classroom training by working directly in democracy assistance and constitutional research in the field.”
With funding from Texas Global, the program will place nine graduate and undergraduate students in IDEA’s offices in Panama and Chile, and their Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Summer 2023. Students will work with International IDEA on a range of democracy assistance projects and with CCP to field public consultations on constitutional issues. Their work in Chile and Panama comes at a particularly exciting and complex time, with Chile drafting a new constitution in 2023 and Panama preparing for national elections in Spring 2024.
“I am so excited about this internship opportunity because it’s unlike any other one I’ve had before,” says Alexys Aquino, a UT senior majoring in government, international relations and global studies, and Spanish, who will be going to the Panama office.
“We will be working directly with an organization that is actively partaking in electoral and democratic reform in several Latin American countries, which is such a privilege to do as a student,” said Aquino. “This summer I’m hoping to get a firsthand look at the work that goes into an intergovernmental organization, to immerse myself in Panamanian culture, and to learn a little more about what my long-term academic and research interests are.”
Students prepared for their work abroad through a new government course created for the program—Research in Democratic and Constitutional Development—covering various facets of democratization, constitutional design, and democracy assistance. During the Spring 2023 semester, the class designed a new deliberative consultation framework to research public views on constitutional issues in the region. Recently, the students met with IDEA personnel for a briefing where students presented the tools developed in the class and IDEA personnel discussed what to expect during the summer field work. The students will depart in late May to start work for IDEA on June 1.
“It has also been especially rewarding to work with a small group of people,” adds Aquino. “Dr. Moran and Dr. Elkins have really helped cultivate a community among the students participating. It feels like we are a big team on a mission!”
For more information on this year’s program activities or applying for the fellowship in future years, please reach out to Zachary Elkins (zelkins@austin.utexas.edu) and Ashley Moran (ashleymoran@utexas.edu).