Yanilda Gonzalez received her undergraduate degree in Politics and Latin American Studies from New York University in 2005. She entered Princeton in the fall of 2008 to begin work on a PhD in Politics and Social Policy. She has worked at the New York Civil Liberties Union, as well as a number of human rights and women's rights organizations in Argentina. Her research interests include state formation and state capacity, state-society relations, race and ethnicity, social movements, political participation, and citizenship. Her dissertation focuses on "participatory security," a type of police reform that establishes formal mechanisms for community participation in matters of security in Latin America.