I am a PhD student in Political Science at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, with a concentration in Comparative Politics and International Relations. My research interests lie at the intersection of international political economy, diplomacy, human mobility, labour migration,  and development. In particular, I seek to understand how economic structures, institutions, and collective narratives shape individual lives and social outcomes.

My research training is grounded in qualitative methods, and I am actively expanding towards mixed methods. Right now, I am starting a Certificate in Digital Humanities at the NU Lab, where I focus on causal inference and network analysis.

I hold a BS in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), from which I graduated with honors. I have over five years of professional experience as a public official in the Mexican federal government, working primarily in public policy and diplomacy. In addition, I have served as a regional manager for an NGO affiliated with the Harvard Kennedy School, where I led the Latin American chapter, and as an analyst for the Offices of the Attorneys General of the Mexican states of Michoacán and Yucatán.

My academic and professional trajectory has been shaped by living across cultures and contradictions. I am particularly interested in how economic transformations affect opportunities, life trajectories, and decision-making processes for specific social groups—especially women and migrant communities. My research experience includes projects on South–South skilled migration, labour mobility in Eastern Europe, Mexican migration in Boston, violence and displacement in Central America, and protest dynamics in Latin America using machine learning techniques (University of Tokyo).

About me. I am very, very Mexican. I was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa—a place marked by violence, contradictions, and resilience. I became a migrant at a young age and have since lived in different regions of Mexico and abroad, including Poland, Japan, the United States, and, more recently, Denmark. These experiences have strengthened my interest in identity formation, adaptation, and agency in unequal and challenging contexts.

Traveling has been both a method of observation and an intellectual practice for me. I have visited 48 countries, and I believe that traveling, reading, and meaningful conversations are some of the most powerful ways to understand the world.

Outside academia, I enjoy dancing, cooking, decorating, cycling (always reminds me of Copenhaguen), writing poetry—I am a poet and the author of a self-published book about pain, which I do not recommend unless you are depressed—talking with my family on the phone (as migrants often do), and spending an unreasonable amount of time watching cat videos online.

You can contact me at barron.ka@northeastern.edu or find me in person on the Northeastern University Boston campus.