Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz, a professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at Bates College, has received the highest award that can be given at the institution, the Kroepsch Award.
Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz’s Family was from Mexico, and she was born in Monterrey but migrated to the United States at a very young age. She graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a Ph.D. For a time, she also worked as a Foreign Service Officer in Mexico and India. Initially, she didn’t want to do her service in Mexico as she felt that would become a stereotype, researching her home nation.
Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz said regarding her position, “I was really upset,” she continues, “But then, it turned out it’s the most incredible thing that happened in my life.”
As a Foreign Service Officer, she was responsible for issuing migrants visas for entry to the United States and helping those with dual citizenship resolve issues with administration. While doing this work, she began to notice patterns among the people who were immigrating out of Mexico and those coming back to the country. These observations helped inspire her future research.
The focus of her research is on how international migration can affect the politics in the migrant’s country of origin, with a particular focus on the country of Mexico. Personally, she was interested in how immigrants from Mexico living outside the country would affect the politics and political sentiments of their country of origin, Mexico.
Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz is a respected and qualified teacher who has done important research for the school, discovering important data patterns that have shaped our understanding of immigration.
