Sebastián Pantoja-Barrios

I am a PhD candidate in Political Science at University of Amsterdam and  will defend my dissertation on December 2025.  Since September 2026, I am also a lecturer in Leiden University.

My research agenda focuses on explaining citizens’ political participation in war-torn democracies through different theoretical frameworks involving state capacity and institutional reforms.

To carry out this research, I designed and executed a mixed-method study, collecting interviews and field observations in conflict-affected regions in Colombia (Montes de María and Catatumbo) and running inferential statistical analyses using panel survey data on adult population of these regions.

I have worked as a research manager in academia (Universidad de los Andes, 2016-2018 and 2023-2025) and private sector (Ipsos, 2018-2021), and as consultant at United Nations Development Program (2021 and 2023-2024).

I have also worked as a lecturer at Universidad de los Andes (2017-2019) and Universidad Javeriana (2019), and as a teaching assistant at University of Amsterdam (2022) and Universidad del Rosario (2015 - 2016).

You can access to my publications here. You can also download my Curriculum Vitae, and visit my Linkedin and ORCID profiles.