Kelly Bauer, Ph.D.

I (Dr. Kelly Bauer, she/her/hers) am a political scientist researching and teaching about identity and development politics in Latin America, and knowledge production in political science. I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and a member of the Red De Politólogas – #NoSinMujeres.

My interdisciplinary teaching and research explore how Latin American states govern identity politics to recenter themselves as global trends destabilize state sovereignty; currently, I am writing about state responses to Indigenous rights, irregular migration, and human security regimes. My book, Negotiating Autonomy: Mapuche Territorial Demands and Chilean Land Policy (2021), explores inconsistencies resulting from how state officials navigate extending elite and neoliberal governance and citizenship through policy in post-Pinochet Chile. A second line of research studies the best practices of teaching and learning, examining how to make the classroom and university spaces for place-based, student-centered learning and empowerment. This work interrogates political science pedagogy to understand student access to and success in the field, focusing particularly on research methodology courses.

Recent Publications on Indigenous Politics:

• 2021. Bauer, Kelly, Negotiating Autonomy: Mapuche Territorial Demands and Chilean Land Policy. University of Pittsburgh Press. Here.
• 2020. Balasco, Lauren and Bauer, Kelly. “Political Contestation within the Human Security Paradigm: The State and Indigenous Rights in Peru and Chile.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies/ Revue canadienne d’études du développement. Here.
• 2018. Bauer, Kelly, “Not-So-Neoliberal Governance: Chile’s Response to Mapuche Territorial Demands,” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 13 (2). Available here.
• 2016. Bauer, Kelly, “Land versus Territory: Evaluating Indigenous Land Policy for the Mapuche in Chile.” Journal of Agrarian Change 16(4): 627-645. Available here.

Recent Publications on Chilean Politics:

• 2021. Bauer, Kelly and Villalobos, Claudio. “Politics of Expertise and Blame during COVID-19 Quarantine in Chile.” Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies 4 (3): 65-76. here.
• 2015. Bauer, Kelly, Review of Evelyn A. Clark, Victims of Time Warriors for Change: Chilean Women in a Global, Neoliberal Society. International Feminist Journal of Politics 17 (3). Available here.

Recent Publications on Migration Politics:

• 2022. “Voting To Work Together: Democracy And Regional Cooperation In The Context Of The Summit Of The Americas,” with Fabiana Perera. Analysis for Australian Outlook. Here. 
• 2021. “Extending and Restricting the Right to Regularisation: Lessons from South America.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. here.
• 2021. Bauer, Kelly, Samantha Redfern, Hyeon Wang, and Sienna Woo. “Surpassing the Wall of Nebraska Nice: An analysis of trends and justifications of immigration rhetoric within Nebraska journalism.” Great Plains Research. here.

Recent Publications on Teaching and Academia:

• 2022. “Reflexiones sobre la pedagogía feminista, la rabia, y las prácticas de autoconservación en la universidad pandémica,” part of a Foro de Debate” “Desafíos y reflexiones de las tareas académicas en pandemia desde una mirada feminista,” coauthored by Jael Goldsmith Weil, Jennifer Cyr, Kelly Bauer, Lucía Miranda Leibe, Gustavo Valenzuela, Pilar Arcidiácono, Luisina Perelmiter, Elisa Rivera. Iberoamericana 22(80): 209-242. Here. 

• 2022. “Teaching and Learning Immigration Politics as a Local Issue,” with Hyeonju Wang*. Political Science Educator, 26(1). here.

• 2021. Goldsmith Weil, Jael y Bauer, Kelly. “Re-imaginando diversidad en la academia, en tiempos de activismo feminista y pandemia,” POLIS Revista Latinoamericana 20 (59). Introduction to co-edited special edition. here.

• 2021. Clancy, Kelly A. and Bauer, Kelly. “Scaffolding Research Methods Across the Curriculum: An Exploration of Embedded Curricular Design,” in Teaching Research Methods in Political Science, edited by Jeffrey L. Bernstein, Edward Elgar Publishers. Here.

• 2019. Clancy, Kelly and Bauer, Kelly, “Reconceptualizing diversity and difference: Teaching US and Comparative Politics in conversation.” Newsletter of the Organized Section in Comparative Politics of the American Political Science Association, 29(1): 85-92. Available here.
• 2018. Clancy, Kelly and Bauer, Kelly, “Creating student-scholar-activists: Discourse instruction and social justice in political science classrooms,” New Political Science 40 (3). Available here.
• 2018. Bauer, Kelly and Clancy, Kelly, “Teaching Race and Social Justice at a Predominantly White Institution,” Journal of Political Science Education 14 (1): 72-85. Available here.