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Tina Hilgers

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Concordia University

tina.hilgers@ concordia.ca

I earned my Ph.D. in Political Science from York University (Ontario, Canada) in 2007. I have been a professor at Concordia University since 2010 and the Director of the Lab for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (LLACS) at Concordia since 2016.

My research is situated in the field of comparative politics, intersecting with sociology, anthropology, and geography. My research and teaching activities focus primarily on urban politics and the dynamics of violence and informality. My recent work demonstrates, among other things, that structural and informal power hierarchies continue to shape many so-called democratic practices in state-society relations.

Langues : Languag​es: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish​


Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Concordia University​


My current research focuses on 3 main areas

  • The links between formal, informal, and illegal spheres in the economic, political, and social organization of low-income communities ​
  • The forms of resistance and resilience to chronic urban violence​
  • The relationships between the state, democracy, the market, and the construction of citizenship

Recent Research Projects

2024 – 2028 FRQSC Operational Research Team Support Program. Project: “Équipe de recherche interuniversitaire sur l’inclusion et la gouvernance en Amérique latine” (ÉRIGAL). Role: Co-Lead (with JF Mayer) of Axis 2 “Violence, Resistance, and Human Rights” (PI: Françoise Montambeault, UdeM). Amount: $403,450

2024 – 2026 Chaire des Amériques, UNAM / UdeM.  Project: “Ciudadanía, ciudades desiguales, y democracia en América latina”. Role: Research Member (with Co-chairs: Françoise Montambeault, UdeM, and Patricia Ramirez Kouri, UNAM). Amount: $60,000

2023 – 2024 Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture Working Group Grant. Project: “Informal Cities”.  Role: Organizer. Amount: $2,500

2023 SSHRC Connection Grant. Project: “When the light gets in during the darkest days: New democratic initiatives in authoritarian 21st century Latin America”.  Role: Co-applicant (with PI Charmain Levy, UQO). Amount: $19,554

2022 – 2023 Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture Working Group Grant. Project: “Informal Cities”. Role: Organizer. Amount: $2,500

2020 – 2025 SSHRC Insight Grant. Project: “Informality, Violence, and Resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean”. Role: PI (with Co-applicant Jean François Mayer, Concordia). Amount: $253,002

2020 SSHRC Connection Grant. Project: “Diasporic Listening: Performative Interventions in Transitional Justice in Colombia and Beyond”. Role: Collaborator (with PI Luis Sotelo Castro, Concordia). Amount: $41,082

Latest publications

Montambeault, Françoise, and Tina Hilgers (eds.). Unequal Democracy: Civil Society, Neopluralism, and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Latin America and Beyond. Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Forthcoming.

Montambeault, Françoise, and Tina Hilgers. 2024. “State Interests, Civil Society Heterogeneity, and the Social Construction of Citizenship under Neopluralism” in Françoise Montambeault and Tina Hilgers (eds.) Unequal Democracy: Civil Society, Neopluralism, and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Latin America and Beyond. McGill-Queen’s University Press. Forthcoming.

Hilgers, Tina. 2024. “Neopluralism, Citizenship, and Clientelism: The Urban Popular Movement in Mexico City” in Françoise Montambeault and Tina Hilgers (eds.) Unequal Democracy: Civil Society, Neopluralism, and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Latin America and Beyond. McGill-Queen’s University Press. Forthcoming.

Hilgers, Tina, and Jean François Mayer. 2024. “Le secteur informel urbain en Amérique latine” in Françoise Montambeault, Dan Furukawa Marques, and Nora Nagels (eds.) L’Amérique latine en transformation: Mobilisation et citoyenneté, pp. 153-174. Montréal: Presses de L’Université de Montréal.

Hilgers, Tina. 2024. “Clientelism” in Luis Macedo Pinto de Sousa and Susana Duarte Coroado (eds.) Encyclopaedia of Corruption, pp. 26-31. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Dias Felix, Annabelle, and Tina Hilgers (eds). 2022. “The Democratic Deficit of Community Oriented Policing.” Policing & Society Collection. 

Hilgers, Tina, and Jean François Mayer. 2022. “Negociar Inclusão pelo Clientelismo: Democracias Neoliberais, Pobreza e Desigualdade.” Revista ExtraPrensa, 16(1): 52-81.

Davis, Diane, and Tina Hilgers. 2022. “The Pandemic and Organized Crime in Urban Latin America: New Sovereignty Arrangements or Business as Usual?” Special issue "ILLICITIES – City-Making and Organized Crime" (eds. Frank Müller and Julienne Weegels), Journal of Illicit Economies and Development 4(3): 241-256.

Hilgers, Tina, Anna Calderón, and Maxime Honigmann. 2022. "Tensions between the Middle Class and the “New Middle Class” in Brazil: An Accidental Biographical Ethnography." Latin American Research Review 57(3): 536-553.

Hilgers, Tina. 2020. “Security, Resilience, and Participatory Urban Upgrading in Latin America and the Caribbean.” Development & Change, 51(5): 1246-1270.

Dias Felix, Annabelle, et Tina Hilgers. (2020). “Community Oriented Policing Theory and Practice: Global Policy Diffusion or Local Appropriation?” Policing & Society, online first,  https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2020.1776280 

Hilgers, Tina. 2020. “Clientelism” in Olaf Kaltmeier, Anne Tittor, Daniel Hawkins, and Eleonora Rohland (eds) The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the Americas, pp. 308-314. London: Routledge. 

Website

https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/polisci/faculty.html?fpid=tina-hilgers

tinahilgers.ca 

llacs.ca