Catalina Smulovitz

Catalina Smulovitz is the Director of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Professor Smulovitz's research interests include human rights, the rule of law, democratic governance, judicial mobilization, and domestic violence. Her work primarily focuses on Latin America with an emphasis on Argentina. Among her most notable publications are "Guarding the Guardians in Argentina: Some Lessons about the Risks and Benefits of Empowering the Courts," in Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies (with Carlos Acuña, ed. James McAdams; University of Notre Dame Press, 1997), "Citizen Insecurity and Fear: Public and Private Responses in the Case of Argentina," in Crime and Violence in Latin America: Citizen Security, Democracy, and the State (ed. Hugu Fruhling et al.; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), and "Societal and Horizontal Controls: Two Cases about a Fruitful Relationship," in Accountability, Democratic Governance, and Political Institutions in Latin America (ed. Scott Mainwaring and Christopher Welna, Oxford University Press, 2003). She is the editor (with Enrique Peruzzotti) of Enforcing the Rule of Law: Citizens and the Media in Latin America (Pittsburgh University Press, 2006). She has served as a Visiting Professor at Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI) of Brown University and in the Political Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Professor Smulovitz was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, an award that recognizes mid-career intellectuals with exceptional and productive scholarship as well as substantial contributions to the arts. She holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Universidad del Salvador-Buenos Aires and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University.