Hannah Baron’s research examines political and criminal violence and democratic backsliding, with a regional focus on Latin America. She completed her PhD in Political Science at Brown University in 2023. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research (CIPR), Tulane University (2023–2025), a Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego (2021–23), a Peace Scholar Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (2021–22), and an Emerging Scholar awarded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (2021–22). Her research has been published in Political Science Research and Methods, PS: Political Science & Politics, the Journal of Peace Research, and Political Behavior.
In 2017, Baron co-founded the Democratic Erosion Consortium, a partnership of researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners committed to marshaling evidence and learning to address the growing crisis of democratic erosion worldwide. In her leadership role, she has trained and mentored dozens of students from across the country to contribute to the Democratic Erosion Event Dataset. Both before and since joining Xavier, she has prioritized recruiting HBCU students into rigorous research experiences.
In addition to her substantive areas of interest, she collaborates on projects to evaluate and improve research ethics in violent contexts, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).
Before graduate school, Baron earned a BA in Romance Languages & Literatures and Studies of Women, Gender, & Sexuality from Harvard College, magna cum laude. Her undergraduate studies focused on queer and feminist prose, poetry, and performance art under conditions of political violence and repression in the Americas.
Outside of Xavier, Baron is actively engaged in community organizing in New Orleans, with a focus on reproductive health and rights as well as immigrant rights.
Her up to date research projects and CV are viewable on her personal website: hannahmbaron.com.
