René Rejón

Research

My current research investigates the impacts of structural injustice on political representation. I use quantitative and qualitative empirical data to demonstrate race and gender-based marginalization in legislative institutions —primarily in Mexico and Latin America. I then use these empirical analyses to inform normative discussions about how to (practically) respond to these injustices.

My main areas of interests are political theory, legislative studies, sociology of race, and how these should inform public policy. However, I enjoy collaborating with scholars working on other topics and disciplines, particularly where my skills in digital tools enhance and buttress their projects. Currently, I’m supporting two large projects:

  • “Right-wing populism and the political feasibility of climate policy” (funded by the Norwegian Research Council) led by Robyn Eckersley (University of Melbourne), Guri Bang (NMBU) and Håkon Sælen
    (CICERO). I’ve scraped parliamentary data from Australia and the United States to text-mine the speeches of legislators and conduct sentiment and discourse analyses.
  • “Diaspora Humanitarians” (funded by the Australian Research Council) led by Prof. Bina Fernandez. I was responsible for the quantitative phase of the project (i.e., data collection, visualisation and analysis) and collaborated in the qualitative data analysis too.

Interested in collaborating? Contact me at rene.rejon [at] unimelb.edu.au

These are some of the most recent projects I’ve participated on:

Academia

Research Assistant. Diaspora Humanitarians (ARC Linkage Project LP200200817). Led by: Prof. Bina Fernandez

  • Create 10+ Qualtrics online surveys designed to understand and enhance the ways in which Australia-based migrants respond to support their communities during humanitarian crises abroad. The case study diasporas included: Pasifika, Indonesian, Myanmar, Nepalese, Afghan, Lebanese, Syrian, and South Sudanese.

Research Fellow. Policy-makers’ view on co-design with young people: Promises and pitfalls. Led by: Dr. Sarah Ball

  • Obtain ethics approval for research with human subjects; prepare and submit an ethics application form and supplementary material, including Plain Language Statement, consent form and interview guides.
  • Conduct a literature review on the concept of co-design in preparation for the publication of research findings.
  • Identify potential interviewees; organise and conduct interviews

Research Assistant. “Right-wing populism and the political feasibility of climate policy” (NRC 324844). Led by: Prof. Robyn Eckersley

  • This project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council, conducts an international comparative study of Australia, Germany, Norway and the United States.
  • Conduct and draft an academic literature review on the relationship between right-wing populism and conservatism and fascism; to explore if the former is conceptualised as a distinct, overlapping or subset phenomena of the latter.

Research Assistant. Youth mental health challenges and codesigned policies. Led by: Dr. Signe Ravn

  • Analyse policies and programs through official documents, parliamentary discussions and media to explore what the evidence-base was for their implementation, especially that related to codesign and collaboration with young people
  • Seek ethics approval to run semi-structured interviews with policy makers and organisations involved to gain their perspective on best practices and lessons learned

Research Assistant. Prof. Robyn Eckersley

  • Assist Prof. Eckersley’s participation as keynote speaker at the (UK) Political Studies Association’s Annual Lecture, producing a timetable of high level ministerial and heads of state meetings among major emitters in the lead up to COP26 at Glasgow.
  • Conduct exploratory research about the troubling democratic implications of the Climate Emergency movement, to assist Prof. Eckersley’s participation in the panel “Trends and Tensions in Environmental Advocacy” at the International Studies Association (ISA) 2022 Annual Convention, with the paper “The climate emergency movement and democracy”.

Research Assistant. Policy Capacity. Led by: Dr. Scott Brenton and Dr. Erik Baekkeskov

  • Investigate the potential impact of experts and depoliticised decision-making in terms of policy capacity, focusing on earlier stages or ‘inputs’ for policymaking rather than implementation and later parts of the policy process.
  • Proof-read and edit the manuscript “Policy Capacity: Evolving Theory and Missing Links“, published in Policy Studies
  • Conduct a literature review to identify the debate that exists around the potential impact of experts and depoliticised decision-making in terms of policy capacity.

Research Assistant. What makes a Climate Leader? (ARC Discovery Project DP110100669). Led by: Prof. Robyn Eckersley

  • Assist Prof. Robyn Eckersley in the project, by conducting a literature review and a fully referenced overview of the foreign policy traditions of five countries.
  • Gather data about Official Development Assistance (ODA) contributions and other indicators of internationalist cosmopolitan commitments of the case study countries regarding each other and in relation to all OECD countries.
  • Prepare a chart ranking the relative mitigation ambition and contribution to climate finance of each of the case study countries in relation to the Copenhagen pledges (2009) and the Paris national contribution (2015).

Civil Society

Researcher. Police Development Index. Causa en Común.

Researcher. What does the Police think? Causa en Común.

Project Coordinator. Emergency Response Centers in Mexico. Causa en Común.