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Kara Ross Camarena studies the political economy of migration, conflict, and development. She investigates questions about how human mobility, politics, and economics interact. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, World Development, and PLOS ONE. Her research in progress explores what motivates refugees to repatriate, political reactions to migrants, and how humanitarian aid for civilians and displaced persons alters rebel behavior.

Camarena’s policy commentary has been published in War on the Rocks and The Conversation. Her research has been written about in Bloomberg, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Camarena earned a PhD from the Department of Government at Harvard University, where her doctoral research involved field work in Tanzania, Kenya, and Australia. She earned a MPP from the Harris School of Public Policy, and a BA from the College at the University of Chicago. She conducted research as an Assistant Professor in International Development at Loyola University Chicago and as a postdoctoral scholar at the Harris School for Public Policy.

Prior to graduate school, Camarena worked in development in Tanzania and in the non-profit sector in the United States. She has consulted with a variety of private and government organizations on program evaluation, survey research, and migration policy and programming. Currently she works as an analyst for the US Department of Defense, conducts independent research, and serves as a Research Associate at the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts.