Welcome!  I am an Associate Professor of Government at Colby College.  My research and teaching interests include citizen participation in the policymaking process, social-citizenship rights, social policy, urban governance, and institutional change, with a regional focus on Latin America.  My book, Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2019), examines the divergent trajectories of nationally mandated participatory institutions in Brazil and Colombia. I am currently engaged in research projects analyzing the politics of urban security interventions and the rights of marginalized groups, policies and coalitions to address the sexual exploitation of children in Latin America, and grassroots mobilization by right-wing movements. In 2020, I received the Clarence Stone Scholar Award by the APSA Urban and Local Politics section.

Prior to coming to Colby, I was a Democracy Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.  I completed my Ph.D. at UC Berkeley’s Travers Department of Political Science, an M.P.P. from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, and a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, where I was a first-generation-to-college student.

You can reach me at Lindsay.Mayka [AT] colby.edu or on Twitter @Lindsay Mayka.