Professional Affiliation

Professor of the Practice of Political Science and International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences; Fellow, Center on Public Diplomacy and Professor, University of Southern California; Adjunct Fellow for Mexico and U.S.-Mexico Affairs, Pacific Council on International Policy

Expert Bio

Dr. Pamela K. Starr is a a professor of the practice in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and in the Public Diplomacy program.  She is also a university fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. 

Dr. Starr came to USC from the Eurasia Group, one of the world's leading global political risk advisory and consulting firms, where she was senior analyst responsible for Mexico. Prior to that, she spent eight years in Mexico as a professor of Latin American political economy at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), a private university in Mexico City. Dr. Starr is an active speaker, commentator, and author on Mexican politics, economics and foreign policy, and on economic reform and policy making in Latin America. She is the author of articles and policy reports on Mexico and US-Mexico Relations, and is currently writing a book on Mexico and U.S.-Mexico relations. 

Starr has also worked as a consultant to investment banks and securities firms, and is currently Senior Adviser at Monarch Global Strategies.  She has briefed officials American and Mexican officials on the bilateral relationship, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade, as well as ambassadors, diplomats, intelligence officials, legislators and staffers from both countries. Dr. Starr’s research and writing focus on three main topics: U.S.-Mexico relations, the politics, economy and foreign policy of contemporary Mexico, and the politics of economic policy-making across Latin America. In a series of books and book chapters, peer-review journal articles and policy-oriented publications, Dr. Starr has  illuminated the interplay between political and economic developments in shaping economic policy in Mexico and Latin America. On the basis of this research, Dr. Starr has given talks throughout the hemisphere to a wide range of audiences, including the World Economic Forum, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, the US Department of State, the US Embassy in Mexico City, the US State Legislative Leaders Foundation, the Mexican legislature and the Ecuadorian Central Bank.

Dr. Starr is a Global Fellow at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  She is also an associate of the Inter-American Dialogue and a member of the Latin American Studies Association.  She has previously held research positions in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil and in at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. She has received grants and fellowships from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Earhart Foundation, the Organization of American States and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. After receiving her PhD from the University of Southern California in 1993, Dr. Starr worked as a visiting assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles before moving to ITAM in 1997.

Education

•  Ph.D. International Relations, University of Southern California, 1993
•  M.A. Latin American Studies, Tulane University, 1983
•  B.A. Political Science, California State University, Northridge, 1982

Expertise

Mexican Politics and Foreign Policy; US-Mexican Relations; Public Diplomacy in the Americas; Comparative Political Economy of Latin America

Wilson Center Project

"Pesos for Dollars? The Political Economy of Dollarization in Latin America: Argentina, Ecuador, and El Salvador"

Previous Terms

Former Public Policy Scholar with the Latin America Program (2005); Former Short-Term Scholar with the Mexico Institute (2003)