Ignacio Arana Araya

Ignacio Arana Araya is an Assistant Professor at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology, Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on comparative elite behavior, presidential personality traits, and institutional variation in Latin America, with expertise in executive-legislative relations, informal institutions, gender in politics, and judicial politics.

• Education: BA in Journalism (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), MA in Political Science (University of Chile), PhD in Political Science (University of Pittsburgh)

His work has been published in top journals like The American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, and Political Psychology, alongside book chapters from Oxford University Press and Springer. His forthcoming book Presidential Personalities and Constitutional Power Grabs in Latin America, 1945-2021 will be published by Oxford University Press.

Arana is an affiliated faculty at CMU’s Center for Informed Democracy & Social-Cybersecurity (IDeA) and part of the Democratic Erosion consortium. He has served as Chile’s country expert for Freedom House since 2016 and contributes to latinoamerica21.com. He also founded and maintains latinos-pittsburgh.com, a bilingual resource for Pittsburgh’s Latino community.

Scientific Awards:

• Provost’s Inclusive Teaching Fellowship (2021-2022), Carnegie Mellon University

His research projects include the World Leaders Database Project, a comprehensive resource on 2,000 global leaders since 1970, and ongoing work on The Psychology of Presidents (under contract with Cambridge University Press).