Esmeralda López

Esmeralda López is a PhD candidate in the joint Political Science and Public Policy program and a Rackham Merit Fellow at the University of Michigan. She is interested in human rights and gender-based violence. Specifically, her dissertation concerns the origins and outcomes of human rights discourse. She investigates how and why states "call out" other states for human rights violations and whether such strategies are effective. During the 2025-2026 academic year, Esmeralda was a Genocide and Atrocity Prevention Research Fellow at the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Before coming to Michigan, she received BAs in Political Science and History at the University of North Texas where she was a McNair Scholar.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/esmeralda-anahi-lopez/home