Melissa Martinez
Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs University of Mary Washington
- Fredericksburg VA
Dr. Martinez is an expert on human rights, criminal organizations and post-conflict societies in Mexico and Central America.
University of Mary Washington
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Social
Biography
Dr. Martinez has authored and co-authored articles in publications, including Political Science Quarterly, PS: Political Science and Politics, Journal of Democracy, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, International Studies Quarterly and more. She also received the Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Award from the Southwestern Political Science Association. She is currently working on a few manuscripts that examine how naming and shaming countries over violations committed by state and non-state perpetrators affect changes in human rights violations.
In addition, Dr. Martinez presented a paper called "Compliance from the Northern Triangle at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights" at the American Political Science Association. This paper examined why the states of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala comply with certain rulings from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Peace Science Society Graduate Student Travel Grant
2017
American Political Science Association Travel Grant
2017
Dissertation Research Award, University of North Texas
2016
Outstanding Teaching Assistant, University of North Texas
2016, 2018
Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Award, Southwestern Political Science Association
2015
Graduate Assistantship Tuition Scholarship, University of North Texas
2014 - 2018
Raupe Travel Grant, University of North Texas
2013, 2016
Ronald E. McNair Graduate Fellowship, University of North Texas
2012 - 2014
Education
University of North Texas
Ph.D.
International Relations and Comparative Politics
2018
University of North Texas
M.A.
Political Science
2016
St. Mary's University
B.A.
International Relations
2012
Affiliations
- Latin American Studies Association
- American Political Science Association
- Midwest Political Science Association
- International Studies Association
Links
Event Appearances
Compliance from the Northern Triangle in the Regional Court
American Political Science Association’s virtual meeting 2020
Discussant
Human Rights Research Conference Iowa City, IA - 2019
Interactive dialogue in the UNHRC: “Who condemns in an intergovernmental platform?”
International Studies Association Annual Convention Toronto, Canada - 2019
How does International Pressure Affect Human Rights Charges?
International Studies Association Annual Convention San Francisco, CA - 2018
Protests in Post-Conflict Societies
Midwest Political Science Association Chicago, IL - 2017
Military and Police Visibility after Naming and Shaming
Peace Science Society Annual Meeting Tempe, AZ - 2017
Social and Institutional Trust in Resource Cursed States: Data from Africa and Latin America
Southwestern Social Science Association San Antonio, TX - 2013
Articles
How Covid Changed Latin America
Journal of Democracy 36(1): 109-122Kaplan, Oliver, Michael Albertus, Diana Senior-Angulo, Gustavo Flores-Macas, Henrique Delgado, Rafael Ioris, Melissa Martinez, and Amy Erica Smith
2025-01-01
Covid-19 was a pressure test for democracy in Latin America. The pandemic hit the region harder than any other in the world, particularly in terms of covid death rates and rising poverty. The pandemic also created opportunities to consolidate and abuse power, resulting in selective human-rights repression, power grabs, militarization, and corruption. But the effects were not uniformly negative. The pandemic also prompted renewed economic-crisis management, social mobilization, and local checks to central power. Drawing on the experiences of countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, and Peru, this essay illustrates that although the pandemic strained democratic politics, good pandemic management may have stemmed democratic decay. New forms of mobilization and policy implementation emerged, as well as new openings for political challengers that will shape the coming decade of governance in the region.
Democratic Backsliding: El Salvador's State of Emergency and Use of Violence
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 25, Number 1, Summer 2024Melissa Martinez
2024-06-01
El Salvador's state of emergency has been accompanied by widespread human rights violations and will result in long-term effects on the country's democracy. President Nayib Bukele has been working to expand his executive power since he won the presidential seat in 2019. The state of emergency accelerated his pursuit of consolidating power in the state, which has led to democratic backsliding. Moreover, the rapid erosion of civil liberties and physical integrity rights has expanded the gap that victims have towards accountability and protection from the excessive use of power. Nevertheless, there is still a ray of hope. International human rights activists have been paying close attention and have been documenting the abuses under the state of emergency. Victims of physical integrity abuse can seek support from the International Criminal Court.
Does the Inter-American Court of Human Rights affect the development of human rights norms in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala?
International Studies Volume 60, Issue 1 Pages: 91 - 112Melissa Martinez
2023-04-01
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have struggled to adopt measures of accountability and support for human rights norms since the end of the civil conflicts in the region. Many victims and activists have taken their cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to gain reparations and accountability. How effective is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights at advancing human rights norms related to the cases it examines? I examine this question by developing the ‘domestic norm cycle’ theory, which extends Keck and Sikkink’s (1998) norm cycle theory. This theory captures how the ‘internalization’ of a norm takes place by examining political institutions. I argue that we can observe various stages of the ‘domestic norms cycle’ to examine how close or far the state is to fully adopting the norm. Although this article examines the levels of compliance with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, this theory can be applied to examine how external factors influence the development of human rights norms. This study has significant implications for how we observe support for human rights practices.
Gender, Internal Armed Conflict, and High Court Decision Making in Transitioning Societies
International Studies Quarterly, Volume 65, Issue 3, September 2021, Pages 782–797Lee Walker, Melissa Martinez, Christopher Pace.
2021-09-01
Building on research that applies the policy deference model to high court decision-making during external war, we propose that conflict intensity, political government's preference on liberalization, and the gender of appellant impact the manner in which courts follow policy deference during internal war in transitioning countries. Contextually, we argue that shifts in women's roles and gender relations during internal conflict in transitioning societies condition the manner in which civilian courts make decisions on civil and political rights cases. During external war in advanced democracies, policy deference infers that courts will rule more conservatively on civil and political rights cases. Using habeas corpus cases as a representation of civil and political rights’ protection from El Salvador's civil war period (1980–1992) and two measures of conflict intensity, our findings indicate that the court's decision-making process deviates from conventional expectations derived from the policy deference model in three ways: (1) conflict intensity solely affects the court's decision-making on habeas corpus cases involving men; (2) the political government's choice for political liberalization affects the court's decision-making on both women and men cases; and (3) gender conditions the manner in which policy deference applies in a society that is experiencing societal change.
Difficult Commitments: Intercountry Adoption to the United States and Accession to the Hague Convention
Adoption QuarterlyMarijke Breuning, Melissa Martinez
2019-04-01
Why have relatively few countries joined the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption? Have countries that send children to the United States been more likely to join? The United States has joined this convention and prefers sending countries to do so also. However, our findings show that countries that send children to the United States are not more likely to join than other countries. In addition, countries with large “orphan” populations are less likely to join the convention. These findings have implications for the potential of the Hague Convention to improve transparency and accountability in intercountry adoption.
How International Is Political Science? Patterns of Submission and Publication in the American Political Science Review
Political Science and PoliticsMarijke Breuning, Ayal Feinberg, Benjamin Isaak Gross, Melissa Martinez
2018-07-01
How international in scope is publishing in political science? Previous studies have shown that the top journals primarily publish work by scholars from the United States and, to a lesser extent, other global-north countries. However, these studies used published content and could not evaluate the impact of the review process on the relative absence of international scholars in journals. This article evaluates patterns of submission and publication by US and international scholars for the American Political Science Review —one of the most selective peer-reviewed journals in the discipline. We found that scholars from the United States and other global-north countries are published approximately in proportion to submissions but that global-south scholars fare less well. We also found that scholars affiliated with prestigious universities are overrepresented, irrespective of geographic location. The article concludes with observations about the implications of these findings for efforts to internationalize the discipline.
Clearing the Pipeline? Gender and the Review Process at the American Political Science Review
Political Science and PoliticsMarijke Breuning, Benjamin Isaak Gross, Ayal Feinberg, Melissa Martinez
2018-03-01
Is the peer-review process at academic journals gendered? The answer to this question has important implications for the advancement of women in the political science profession. However, few studies have had access to data that can evaluate whether the peer-review process is gendered. We investigate this for papers submitted to the American Political Science Review across two editorial teams to identify trends over time. We evaluate overall differences across gender, but we also present more fine-grained data to evaluate gender differences across subfield, methodology, and submitting author’s institutional affiliation and academic rank. Furthermore, we show that prior service as a reviewer is associated with a higher acceptance rate for first-time submitters. We demonstrate that the review process is not gendered. Women’s share of submissions and acceptances has risen but remains lower than their presence in the discipline.
Do “Resource-Cursed States” Have Lower Levels of Social and Institutional Trust? Evidence from Africa and Latin America*
Social Science QuarterlyJohn Ishiyama, Melissa Martinez, Melda Ozsut
2017-10-01
Objective: In this paper we examine whether individuals in states that are "resource cursed" (or those rich in oil and gas) express lower levels of trust than those in countries that are not as "cursed" with such resources. Methods: We derive a set of hypotheses linking resource endowment with social and institutional trust and use survey data from the Afrobarometer and the Americas Barometer to test our propositions. Results: Using multi-level logit analysis for 42 African and Latin American countries, and subnationally for two large oil producing countries (Nigeria and Mexico), we find that individuals in countries that are oil and gas exporters exhibit much less social and institutional trust than individuals in countries that are not oil or gas producers. However, when examining oil producing states within Nigeria and Mexico, we find that individuals in oil producing regions tend to express higher levels of individual social and institutional trust than regions that were not oil producers. Conclusion: The findings support the theoretical propositions that individuals in countries that are resource exporters that generate external rents are less likely to exhibit high levels of social or institutional trust than individuals in countries that were not oil or gas exporters between 1980 and 2008. Thus it appears that oil and gas rents are associated with lower social and institutional trust.
