Leslie MacColman

Profile

Leslie MacColman is a PhD candidate in Sociology and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She is an affiliate of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Leslie's research deals with state-building, local governance, institutional change, and violence in Latin America. 

Leslie's MA thesis examined the association between civic participation and fear of crime in low-income, gang-affected neighborhoods in Honduras. She spent several months in Honduras, doing independent research and providing technical assistance to a state-led violence-prevention project on a USAID - Notre Dame Global Development Fellowship. Leslie's dissertation examines the effects of organizational reform on police practices in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with an eye for precinct-level variation. Her mixed-methods study draws inspiration from literature on culture, organizational change, and neighborhood effects, classic sociological studies of police, and insights about the topology of organized crime in Latin American cities. Leslie is currently carrying out fieldwork on a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.

Prior to joining the Notre Dame community, Leslie worked for various rights-based civil society organizations and as an international development consultant. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Spanish from the University of Montana - Missoula, an MA in International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies from the Universidad del Salvador, where she was a Rotary Peace Fellow, and a graduate certificate in NGO management from the Universidad de San Andrés.

Recent Awards

Leslie MacColman has received grants from ISLA and USAID for research in Honduras and from the Kellogg Institute for research in Argentina.