Allison Andrade

Allison Andrade is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in International Relations & Global Studies and Plan II Honors, with a minor in French and a Bridging Disciplines Program Certificate in Public Policy. Passionate about the intersection of law, democracy, and human rights, she strives to leverage legal tools and democratic institutions to protect civil liberties, challenge abuses of power, and advance people-centered justice.

On campus, she has taken coursework related to Latin American history, ethnic violence, and democracy, conducting archival research on historical human rights violations while also examining contemporary conflicts and rising authoritarianism around the world. These courses inspired her honors thesis, which analyzes a case study of populism in El Salvador to generate broader implications into the state of democracy in Latin America. Her thesis investigates why citizens become disillusioned with democracy and explores the explanatory variables that help contextualize populism’s appeal.

Allison also has extensive professional experience working in legislative policy, international development, and human rights. She has interned at the Texas House of Representatives in the Office of Representative Carrie Isaac and the Office of Representative Eddie Morales, Jr. Through UT’s Embedded Scholars Program, she spent a summer in Panama working with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance - Latin America on democratic backsliding in the Northern Triangle. Later, she worked for the Washington Office on Latin America in their Venezuela and Mexico country programs, as well as the “Democracy Community of Practice” initiative.

Allison plans to attend law school to pursue a career in international human rights law. She aims to work in the Latin America field, partnering with and amplifying the voices of women, Indigenous peoples, and civil society organizations to secure concrete legal protections and systemic reforms, with dreams of someday litigating before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to help set lasting precedents for the region.