Nicholas Barnes

Dr Nicholas Barnes is a Lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, with a focus on political and criminal violence in Latin America. He holds a PhD in comparative politics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, alongside postdoctoral and visiting roles at Brown University and Grinnell College. His research examines organized crime governance, police militarization, and ethnographic fieldwork ethics in Brazil.

Education includes a B.A. from Coe College (2004), an M.Sc. in Ethno-Communal Conflict from University College Dublin (2008), and a Ph.D. in comparative politics (2017). His work has been funded by major grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, and others.

Research interests include criminal territorial control, gang dynamics in Rio de Janeiro, and the interplay between criminal groups and state institutions. He has published extensively on topics like drug-trafficking governance, militarized policing, and community resistance strategies in favelas.

Notable publications include the book 'Inside Criminalized Governance' (2025, Cambridge UP) and articles in Comparative Political Studies and Current Sociology. His research combines ethnographic methods with comparative analysis to explore non-state actors' roles in governance and violence.

Awards include the Royal Society of Edinburgh Grant and the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship. He advises four doctoral students on topics ranging from criminal politics to Latin American security dynamics.