Juan Pablo Luna
Inaugural Chairholder of the Diamond-Brown Chair in Democratic Studies in the Department of Political Science at McGill University
I obtained my PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2006.
While mainly focused on comparative Latin American politics, my research analyzes how socio-structural conditions, such as social inequality and state capacity, shape democratic institutions and development trajectories. Regarding teaching, I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses (master’s and PhD levels) on Latin American politics, democracy, organized crime, research design, and methodologies. I have had the pleasure of supervising the doctoral research of more than a dozen students.
Languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
Chairholder of the Diamond-Brown Chair in Democratic Studies. Department of Political Science. Faculty of Arts (McGill)Main research areas
- Democracy
- Political Effects of Inequality
- Organized Crime
- State Capacity
- Political Representation
- Comparative Politics
- Institutional/Political Underpinnings of Development
Recent research projects
Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Fellowship Awards. Principal Researcher. USD: 75.000. 2023-2025.
Instituto Milenio VIODEMOS. Associate Researcher, research line leader: challenges of violent democracies. USD: 7.000.000. 2020 -2030
Social Science Research Council, Social Science One-Facebook Inaugural Research Fellowships on the impact of Facebook on political campaigns. Principal Researcher. USD: 50.000. 2019- 2020
FONDECYT Project Competition. Principal Researcher. USD: 173.000. 2019 - 2022
Instituto Milenio Fundamentos de los Datos. Associate Researcher, research line leader: inequality, citizenship, and political conflict in contemporary democracies. USD: 11.000.000. 2018 - 2028.
Most recent publications
Luna, J. P. (2024). Disjointed Polarization in Chile’s Enduring Crisis of Representation. Latin American Politics and Society, 66(2), 72-101.
Muñoz-Rodríguez, M., Ferrero, R., Luna, J. P., & Lima, M. (2024). Squeezed from the top:“Social Outburst”(2019) and elite overproduction. A study of the dynamics of Chilean political instability from the approach of Structural Demographic Theory. Plos one, 19(6), e0299063.
Luna, J. P., Alcatruz, D., Muñoz, C. P., Rosenblatt, F., Maureira, S. T., & Valenzuela, S. (2024). Local government, social media and management of COVID-19: the case of Chilean mayoral communication. Political Communication, 41(4), 672-691.
Luna, J. P., & Medel, R. M. (2023). Uneven states, unequal societies, and Democracy’s unfulfilled promises: Citizenship rights in Chile and contemporary Latin America. Latin American Politics and Society, 65(2), 170-196.
Alberti, C., Luna, J. P., Toro-Maureira, S., & Gayo, E. (2023). The long memory of the land: Pre-colonial origins of Mapuche mobilization in Chile. Political Geography, 103, 102890.
Luna, J. P., Toro, S., & Valenzuela, S. (2022). Amplifying counter-public spheres on social media: News sharing of alternative versus traditional media after the 2019 Chilean uprising. Social Media+ Society, 8(1), 20563051221077308.
Website
https://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/juan-pablo-luna