RESEARCH
León, Nicaragua
Guatemala City
Antigua, Guatemala
RECENT PRESENTATION
Foreshadowing Democratic Decay: Nicaragua's Violence against Women Policy Advances and Reversals as a Canary in the Coal Mine for Women Worldwide. Presented for the Red Interamericana Anti Femicido [Interamerican Network Against Femicide]. July 2022.
Link to Presentation (Youtube)
PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Medie, Peace and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2021.
"International Organizations, Nongovernmental Organizations, and Police Implementation of Domestic Violence Policies in Liberia and Nicaragua."
Politics & Gender. Cambridge University Press (First View), 2019, 1-31. doi: 10.1017/S1743923X19000515. In Print: 17(1): 136-166.
Adamson, Erin, Cecilia Menjívar and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2020.
"The Impact of Adjacent Laws on Implementing Violence against Women Laws: Legal Violence in the Lives of Costa Rican Women."
Law & Social Inquiry. Cambridge University Press (First View), 1-28. doi: 10.1017/lsi.2019.58. In print: 45(2): 432-459.
O'Brien, Cheryl and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2020.
"Women's Rights and Opposition: Explaining the Stunted Rise and Sudden Reversals of Progressive Violence against Women Policies in Contentious Contexts."
Journal of Latin American Studies. Cambridge University Press (First View), 2019, 1-25. doi: 10.1017/S0022216X19000956. In print: 52(1): 107-131.
Menjívar, Cecilia and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2017.
"The Architecture of Feminicide: The State, Inequalities, and Everyday Gender Violence in Honduras."
Latin American Research Review. Volume 52, Issue 2: 221-240.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale. 2016.
"Sex Trafficking and the State: Applying Domestic Abuse Interventions to Serve Victims of Sex Trafficking."
Human Rights Review. Online version: April 2016. Print version: June 2016, Volume 17, 221-245.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale and Cecilia Menjívar. 2016.
"'What Guarantees Do We Have?' Legal Tolls and Persistent Impunity for Feminicide in Guatemala"
Latin American Politics and Society. Volume 58, Issue 4: 31-55.
Email shannondwalsh[at]gmail[dot]com for a copy
Menjívar, Cecilia and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2016.
"Subverting Justice: Socio-Legal Determinants of Impunity for Violence against Women in Guatemala"
Laws. Volume 5, Issue 3: 1-20.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale and Cecilia Menjívar. 2016.
"Impunity and Multisided Violence in the Lives of Women in Latin America: El Salvador in Comparative Perspective"
Current Sociology. Online version: April 2016. Print version: July 2016, Volume 64, Issue 4: 586-602.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale. 2015.
“Not Necessarily Solidarity: Dilemmas of Women’s Transnational Advocacy Networks”
International Feminist Journal of Politics. Online version: March 2015. Print version: June 2016, Volume 18, Issue 2, 248-269.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale and Christina Xydias. 2014.
“Women’s Organizing and Intersectional Policymaking in Comparative Perspective: Evidence from Guatemala and Germany”
Politics, Groups, and Identities. Volume 2, Issue 4: 549-572.
Article PDF
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale. 2008.
“Engendering Justice: Constructing Institutions to Address Violence Against Women”
Studies in Social Justice. Volume 2, Issue 1: 48-66.
Article PDF
CO-EDITOR
Medie, Peace and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2021.
"Implementing Women's Rights Laws and Policies." Online introduction for
Politics & Gender Virtual Special Issue 5
BOOK CHAPTERS
Menjívar, Cecilia and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2019.
"Migration, Gender, and Violence." Handbook on Critical Geographies of Migration. Edited by Katharyne Mitchell, Reece Jones, and Jennifer Fluri.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale. 2016.
“Advances and Limitations of Policing and Human Security for Women: Nicaragua in Comparative Perspective” in
Gender Violence in Peace and War: States of Complicity (edited by Victoria Sanford, Katherine Stefatos and Cecilia Salvi). Rutgers University Press.
POLICY PAPERS (NOT PEER REVIEWED)
Menjívar, Cecilia and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2019.
"Gender-Based Violence in Central America and Women Asylum Seekers in the United States."
Translational Criminology. Winter 2019: 12-14.
Paper (PDF)
Menjívar, Cecilia and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. 2018.
"Gender Violence: One Driver of the Central American 'Caravan.'"
Gender Policy Report. University of Minnesota.
OTHER (NOT PEER REVIEWED)
Menjívar, Cecilia and Shannon Drysdale Walsh. October 2, 2017.
"The Architecture of Feminicide: The State, Inequalities, and Everyday Gender Violence in Honduras."
Panoramas, Hosted by the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale, Victoria Sanford, Alyssa Butler, and Rachel Daniell. 2011.
“Outcomes and Recommendations Report: New Pathways to Justice” Policy Report on Stopping Violence Against Women in Central America.
Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies at Lehman College, City University of New York.
Walsh, Shannon Drysdale. 2009.
Review of Women Legislators in Central America, by Michelle Saint-Germain and Cynthia Chávez Metoyer.
Latin American Politics and Society. 51 (3): 183-187.
WORK IN PROGRESS
"The Impact of Transnational Advocacy Networks on Implementing Violence against Women Laws: Women's Policing in Nicaragua vs. Guatemala.” Note: An earlier version of this paper received the 2015 Helen Safa Paper Award by the Latin American Studies Association Gender and Feminist Studies Section.
"Explaining Progressive Policy Reversal: Advocacy Networks and Policy Rivals Creating and Dismantling the Violence against Women Law in Nicaragua "
"On the Origin of Hybrid Non-Governmental Organizations: NGOs, the State, and the Campaign to End Femicide in Latin America " (with Verónica Michel)
BOOK MANUSCRIPT
Engendering State Institutions: State Response to Violence Against Women in Latin America
Engendering State Institutions provides a much-needed explanation for two central questions about the quality of democracy, state-building, and institutional performance: What are the conditions under which states will construct institutions that address the needs of historically marginalized groups? What explains variation in the performance of these institutions that are charged with protecting vulnerable groups and ensuring their access to justice? I examine the creation and performance of specialized policing institutions for women as examples of these broader state-building efforts. I conduct a rich in-depth comparative analysis of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, with additional attention to Honduras and El Salvador.
Surprisingly, countries with the fewest resources such as Nicaragua have developed a wide network of policing institutions, while countries with more capacity such as Costa Rica have not. I explain that the history and strength of transnational advocacy networking determines the creation and performance of these new state institutions, as opposed to efforts located and initiated primarily within the state or within local civil society. Transnational advocacy networks help to solve the twin problems of lack of will within the state and lack of resources within civil society by providing external pressure and funding.
To support this argument, I draw on fieldwork in Latin America and over 250 in-depth interviews with key actors in the state, civil society, and international organizations between 2007 and 2015. Engendering State Institutions makes a unique contribution to existing scholarship both in terms of its empirical contribution (it is the first on the topic of responsiveness to violence against women that focuses comparatively on Central American countries) as well as its theoretical contribution (advancing our theoretical understanding of how states build institutions to protect marginalized groups).
This book project began as a dissertation at the University of Notre Dame directed by Scott Mainwaring (Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame). The committee also included Michael Coppedge (Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame), Frances Hagopian (Jorge Paulo Lemann Senior Lecturer on Government, Department of Government, Harvard University), and Christina Wolbrecht (Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame).
I honor the memory of Guillermo O'Donnell, who guided me through the dissertation proposal at the University of Notre Dame and encouraged me to follow my passion for this research area.
Research Sites: Google Scholar Academia Research Gate
EXTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING AND AWARDS
National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar for the NEH Summer Institute on Diverse Philosophical Approaches to Sexual Violence, 2017
American Political Science Association (APSA) Travel Grant to co-organize a workshop on the Implementation of Women’s Rights Laws (with Peace Medie), 2017
Helen Safa Paper Prize, Latin American Studies Association Gender and Feminist Studies Section, 2015
American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Fellowship, 2014-2015
Tulane University Inter-American Policy and Research Fellowship [Declined], 2014-2015
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend Grant, 2013
American Political Science Association Fund for the Study of Women and Politics Research Grant, 2011
Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2010-2011
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (for field research in Central America), 2007-2008
INTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING AND AWARDS (University of Minnesota)
Institute for Advanced Study Residential Research Fellowship, Fall 2021
Imagine Fund Faculty Award, 2021-2023
Global Programs and Strategy (GPS) Alliance International Travel Grant (field research in Spain), 2018
Grant In In Aid of Research, University of Minnesota, 2017-2018
College of Liberal Arts Research Award (Conferred annually to one tenure-track faculty in the College), 2017
Imagine Fund Faculty Award, 2016-2017
Institute for Diversity, Equity and Advocacy (IDEA), Multicultural Research Award, 2016-2017
McKnight Land-Grant Professorship (endowed professorship for junior faculty), 2014-2016
Grant In Aid of Research, University of Minnesota (for field research), 2012-2013
Institute for Advanced Study Residential Research Fellowship, Fall 2012
INTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING AND AWARDS (University of Notre Dame)
Kellogg Institute Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of Notre Dame, 2009-2010
Center for the Study of Social Movements Travel Grant (for field research in El Salvador), Fall 2008
Kellogg Institute Graduate Research Grant (for field research in Central America), Summer 2006
Zahm Travel Grant (for field research in Guatemala), Summer 2006
Downes Travel Grant (for field research in Guatemala), Summer 2004
Zahm Academic Fellowship, 2006-2007
Kellogg Institute Graduate Research Grant (for field research in Nicaragua and Costa Rica), 2006
Zahm Travel Grant (for field research in Guatemala), 2006
Training Grant to Attend ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research), 2004