Jo-Marie Burt is a is a leading expert on state violence, human rights, and transitional justice in Latin America. She is associate professor of political science at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a leading human rights research and advocacy organization. Presently, she is President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the largest academic association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America.
Dr. Burt’s early research on the Peruvian civil conflict analyzed the failure of democratic government to curb the Maoist-inspired Shining Path insurgency, and how Alberto Fujimori, a political outsider who was elected president in 1990, seized on that failure to construct an authoritarian regime that became one of the most corrupt regimes on the planet. This was the subject of her 2007 book, Silencing Civil Society: Political Violence and the Authoritarian State in Peru (Palgrave), which received an Honorable Mention for the WOLA-Duke Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. The Spanish translation of the book, Violencia y Autoritarismo en el Perú: Bajo la sombra de Sendero y la dictadura de Fujimori, was published by Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, with a second expanded edition in 2011). A third edition of the book was published in 2022 by Grupo Planeta. She is also co-editor of Politics in the Andes: Identity, Conflict, Reform (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004) and
In recent years, Dr. Burt’s research has focused on the ways postconflict societies confront demands for justice and accountability after atrocity. She has developed collaborative research and advocacy projects with international and national organizations in Latin America. She has served as an international trial monitor to several high-profile human rights trials in the region, including the 2007-2009 Fujimori trial in Peru (see Dossier Fujimori for project materials) and the 2013 Rios Montt genocide trial in Guatemala. She directed a two-year collaborative project with local partners to study comparative transitional justice policies in Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador, which resulted in the publication, Transitional Justice in the Aftermath of Civil Conflict: Lessons Learned from Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador. The project coordinated peer-to-peer exchanges with human rights litigators, representatives of victims’ organizations, prosecutors, and judges as well as training workshops. For several years, Dr. Burt monitored and wrote about war crimes prosecutions in Guatemala for International Justice Monitor, a project of Open Society Justice Initiative. Currently, she co-directs Verdad y Justicia en Guatemala, which continues to monitor trials in Guatemala.
Dr. Burt has been awarded grants or fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the United States Institute of Peace, the Aspen Institute, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Inter-American Foundation, the Latin American Studies Association Otros Saberes Initiative, the Inter-American Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, the Institute for the Study of World Politics, and the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, among others.
Dr. Burt is an active member of professional associations including the International Studies Association, the Law and Society Association, and the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). In 2016, she was elected to serve a two-year term on LASA’s Executive Council and chaired the Human Rights Committee. Dr. Burt was a member of the regional studies research team of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and her report on Villa El Salvador was incorporated into the Commission’s 2003 Final Report (Volume 5, Chapter 2.16). She is a member of the board of directors of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) and has served on the international advisory boards of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) the Luz Ibarburu Human Rights Observatorio in Uruguay. Between 1995 and 2000, Dr. Burt was editor of NACLA Report on the America, the largest English-language publication on Latin America. She has served as an expert witness in human rights cases in Peru and at the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, as well as in political asylum cases in U.S. immigration courts.
In 2006, Dr. Burt was a Fulbright Scholar at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). In 2010, she returned to the PUCP as the “Alberto Flores Galindo Visiting Professor” at the Department of Social Sciences and taught a course on comparative transitional justice processes. In 2011, the Government of Peru recognized Dr. Burt with the Award in Merit, in the Grade of Grand Official, for Distinguished Service in Defense of Democracy, Rule of Law, and the Promotion of Human Rights in Peru. Her 2016 article, “From heaven to hell in ten days: The Guatemala genocide trial”, published in the Journal of Genocide Research, received the Best Academic Article award from the Recent History Section of the Latin American Studies Association.
Dr. Burt has commented frequently on Latin American politics for various national and international news media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Forbes Magazine, BBC World, CNN, PRI’s The World, PRI’s The Takeaway, NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, El País, Proceso (Mexico), and Pacifica Radio, as well as print and electronic media in several Latin American countries. She has published articles in The Nation, The Progressive, NACLA Report on the Americas, The Huffington Post, Truth-Out, Foreign Policy in Focus, Open Democracy, and in international media outlets such as El País (Spain), La República (Peru), El Comercio (Peru), Diario 16 (Peru), and Plaza Pública (Guatemala), among others.
Dr. Burt received her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1999.
Blogs and Websites
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Human rights Trials in Peru Project
This website presents ongoing research and publications on human rights prosecutions in Peru, including the trial of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, and includes a blog on articles relating to human rights prosecutions in Peru.
This is a blog of original reporting by WOLA Senior Fellows Jo-Marie Burt and Coletta Youngers on the Peruvian elections (April – June 2011). Blog posts were reposted to the Foreign Policy in Focus blog, Focal Points.
This blog, which is published in Spanish, presents research and opinion pieces on Peruvian politics with a special focus on democracy, human rights and governance issues, and is hosted by the Peruvian Huffington Post, La Mula.
A Contracorriente/NoticiasSER.pe
This blog, also published in Spanish for Servicios Educativos Rurales (SER), a nonprofit organization in Peru, publishes articles related to current human rights issues in Peru, with a special focus on human rights prosecutions and the post-conflict legacies.
In the News
Recent interviews in the international press:
Interviewed by La República (Lima) on challenge of incoming administration in Peru, June 11, 2011. [Link]
Interviewed on Al Jazeera English, on Peruvian elections, June 5, 2011. [Link]
Interviewed by Agence France Press and Los Angeles Times on Peruvian elections, May 28 and 30, 2011.[Link]
Interviewed on Al Jazeera English “Americas” news program, May 29, 2011.
Interviewed on CNN Español hour-long program, “Choque de Opiniones” (Crossfire), on Peruvian elections, May 29, 2011.
Interviewed by La República (Lima) on the Peruvian elections, April 29, 2011. [Link]
Interviewed by Time Magazine on the Peruvian elections, April 11, 2011.[Link]
Interviewed by CNN on the Peruvian elections, April 12, 2011.[Link]
Interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek on the Peruvian elections, April 10, 2011.[Link]
Interviewed by The New York Times for an article on the release from jail in Peru of an American who was convicted on terrorism charges in the late 1990s, March 6, 2011.[Link]
Interviewed by Univision TV on human right trials in Peru (Accomarca case), February 16, 2011.
Click here for more interviews.