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Dr. Michelle Bonner

Michelle Bonner

Professor

Political Science

Status:
On leave Jan 1-June 30, 2024
Contact:
Office: DTB A338 250-853-3561
Credentials:
PhD (2004) (Toronto)
Area of expertise:
Comparative politics, democracy, human rights, global south (Latin America)

Office hours

On leave January 1 - June 30, 2024.

Interests

About Dr. Bonner

Dr. Michelle Bonner is professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria. Her research explores authoritarian practices within democracy, with a human rights lens. In particular, she studies the tension between police violence and democracy through studies of punitive populism, protest policing and enforced disappearances. She examines the impact of public discourse on police violence through her research on the mass media, social movements and the judiciary. Her work takes a critical and fresh look at the challenges of democratic accountability.

She welcomes the opportunity to work with graduate students interested in any of these areas of study and is an associated faculty member with the MA stream in the Politics of Global Challenges. She specializes in comparative politics and the Global South (Latin America).

Her current SSHRC-funded project examines enforced disappearances in Latin America and asks how mass media can best be mobilized by human rights organizations to increase the policy impact of judicial cases at the domestic and international level.

She is the author of four books. Tough on Crime: The Rise of Punitive Populism in Latin America (Pittsburgh University Press, 2019), Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies (co-edited, Palgrave 2018), Policing Protest in Argentina and Chile (Lynne Rienner, 2014), and Sustaining Human Rights: Women and Argentine Human Rights Organizations (Penn State, 2007).

Her book Policing Protest won the 2016 Canadian Political Science Association’s  prize for the best book in Comparative Politics published in 2014-15. It has also been translated and published in Spanish (Ril Editores, 2018). Her most recent book, Tough on Crime, examines how media deregulation and privatization has contributed to political leaders’ increased use of tough on crime rhetoric and policies to win elections and popular support, with important consequences for human rights and democracy.

She has written many articles published in academic journals including Journal of Latin American Studies, Latin American Research Review, Latin American Politics and Society, Bulletin of Latin American Research, International Journal of Press/Politics, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Policing and Society, and the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

She is on the editorial board of the leading international journal on policing, Policing and Society. From 2006-10 she was on the board of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She is also a member of the Latin American Research Group at the University of Victoria and organizes their speakers’ series in coordination with the Centre for Global Studies.

Teaching

Dr. Bonner teaches courses on Latin American politics and human rights.

Teaching 2024-25

Fall 2024:

Spring 2025:

Previous courses taught:

Publications

Books

Journal articles & chapters