Alberto Díaz-Cayeros

Alberto Díaz-Cayeros

Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, MA, PhD

  • Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
  • Affiliated faculty at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
  • Co-director, Democracy Action Lab
  • Director of the Center for Latin American Studies (2016 - 2023)

Encina Hall, C149
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 725-0500 (voice)

Biography

Alberto Díaz-Cayeros is a Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and co-director of the Democracy Action Lab (DAL), based at FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL). His research interests include federalism, poverty relief, indigenous governance, political economy of health, violence, and citizen security in Mexico and Latin America.

He is the author of Federalism, Fiscal Authority and Centralization in Latin America (Cambridge, reedited 2016), coauthored with Federico Estévez and Beatriz Magaloni, of The Political Logic of Poverty Relief (Cambridge, 2016), and of numerous journal articles and book chapters.

He is currently working on a project on cartography and the developmental legacies of colonial rule and governance in indigenous communities in Mexico.

From 2016 to 2023, he was the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford University, and from 2009 to 2013, Director of the Center for US-Mexican Studies at UCSD, the University of California, San Diego.

publications

Original Peoples Count: The Resurgence of Indigenous Communities, Identities and Nations In Latin America

Author(s)
Original Peoples Count: The Resurgence of Indigenous Communities, Identities and Nations In Latin America
Working Papers
October 2025

The political economy of antipoverty policies in Latin America

Author(s)
The political economy of antipoverty policies in Latin America
Working Papers
February 2025

Pandemic Spikes and Broken Spears: Indigenous Resilience after the Conquest of Mexico [Working Paper]

Author(s)
Pandemic Spikes and Broken Spears: Indigenous Resilience after the Conquest of Mexico [Working Paper]
Working Papers
August 2021

In The News

Prof. Adam Prezworski, Prof. Beatriz Magaloni, and Prof. Alberto Díaz Cayeros present during DAL’s Inaugural Conference at El Colegio de Mexico.
Blogs

Stanford’s Democracy Action Lab Launches in Mexico City

The new initiative from the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law connects research with frontline efforts to address democratic backsliding across Latin America.
Stanford’s Democracy Action Lab Launches in Mexico City