Marco Alcocer

Welcome!

I am an an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Merced and an Academy Scholar at The Harvard Academy for International  and Area Studies. Previosuly, I was  a Predoctoral Fellow at ITAM and Innovations for Poverty Action in Mexico City and a Fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. I hold a PhD from the University of California, San Diego.

I research the politics  of violence and crime in Latin America, with a particular focus on organized crime. My research relies on original data and multi-method research designs.  I am the co-founder and Lead Investigator of the Mapping Criminal Organizations (MCO) project, a research lab that seeks to generate systematic data on the presence, structure, evolution, and relationships of criminal groups in Mexico. 

Prior to my PhD, I worked on drug policy at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, with refugees and immigrants at U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, and with unaccompanied immigrant minors in detention centers at the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights.

I am a proud first-generation Mexican immigrant who moved to the U.S. at the age of ten and grew up in a predominantly Hispanic community in Texas. I love playing and watching fútbol, listening to (and singing) corridos, traveling and eating street food in Mexico, and am passionate about helping the communities that I am a part of.

You can find my CV here.

Email: marcoalcocer@ucmerced.edu
Twitter: @Marco_Alcocer1