Karina García-Reyes

Research Area : Mexico

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Karina García was born in Mexico. She studied International Relations at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (2002-2007). From 2007-2012 she worked as an Assistant teacher at the same University (Campus Saltillo), served as the Coordinator of the Social Sciences and Humanities department (2008-2010), and completed the MA in Administration (2007-2010).

In 2013 she completed her MA in Latin American Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Newcastle. Her thesis entitled 'The cognitive capacity and the infrastructural power of the State during Felipe Calderón´s administration: coping with the despotic war on drugs', analysed how the decision of launching the war on drugs in 2007 was based upon political interests rather than a response to an urgent national threat.

In December 2018 Karina García completed her PhD in Politics at the University of Bristol. Her dissertation entitled ‘Poverty, gender and violence in the narratives of former narcos: Accounting for Drug Trafficking Violence in Mexico’ won the prize for best doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law 2018-2019. She investigated how former narcos understood their involvement in violent practices linked to drug trafficking such as kidnapping, torture and murder.

She is currently working as an Assistant Teacher at the University of Bristol. In parallel she is writing a book, based on her thesis, about the perpetrator’s perspectives of drug trafficking violence.