Isabela Tasende ‘24

Isabela Tasende is a political science and economics major with a minor in social entrepreneurship and innovation. Through the International Scholars Program, she will be working with Professor Abby Córdova to study the links between violence against women and political participation in Central America. In addition to her research, Isabela spends time volunteering for the National Immigrant Justice Center and serving as the President of the Latino Honor Society.

Tasende will be working on a book project with Professor Córdova during her time as a Kellogg International Scholar, integrating quantitative and qualitative methods to understand bias in cases of gender-based violence. Additionally, Tasende is part of the Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program, through which she has conducted research on the asylum process and the access to resources for non-English speaking immigrants in the United States. Finally, during the rest of her time at Notre Dame, Tasende also hopes to research executive takeover and autocratic consolidation in Venezuela under the guidance of Professor Mainwaring.

Tasende has cultivated interests in a variety of topics within Latin American Politics. For one, Isabela's work with Somos Voces, a student organization she founded in high school to help young mothers finish their education and break the cycle of poverty, spurred her interests in both gender-based violence and teenage pregnancy in Central America. Tasende is also interested in studying democratic breakdown via executive takeover in Venezuela, with a focus on the question of what has allowed authoritarianism to last for as long as it has.

Thesis Adviser:
Scott Mainwaring