Jonas von Hoffmann

Academic Profile

I am a doctoral student at Exeter College, working under the supervision of Professor Ezequiel Gonzalez Ocantos.

My research interests include drug policy, policy reform, legislative politics, social movements, political and criminal violence, drug trafficking and Latin America. I am particularly interested in the politics of drug policy reform in Latin America and have conducted fieldwork in and published about cannabis reform in Uruguay.

My thesis examines the variation of recent cannabis policy reforms in Latin America. Why and how do cannabis reforms occur and what accounts for differences across the region? Why has Uruguay legally regulated cannabis from seed to smoke, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of autocultivo and Chile’s President allowed medicinal uses of cannabis by decree? To answer these questions, I conduct a comparative analysis of the reform process in Uruguay, Mexico and Chile, using elite interviews, discourse analysis and process tracing.

I hold a B.A. in Politics, Psychology and Sociology from the University of Cambridge (2013) and a M.Phil in Latin American Studies from the University of Oxford (2015). I was awarded the Crowley Price for my Masters’ dissertation, held an Amelia Jackson Scholarship from Exeter College and currently my research is funded by the ESRC.

Awards

Economic and Social Reseach Council Studentship (2015-2018)
[scholarship covering full tuition costs and living allowance]

Honorable Mention for Paper presented by Early Career Researchers at ISSDP Conference in Sydney, Australia (2016)

Student Scholarship: Essex Human Rights Summer School: Human Rights and Drug Policy (2015)

Distinction - MPhil Latin American Studies - Exeter College, University of Oxford (2015)

Crowley Price for MPhil Dissertation, Latin American Centre (2015)

SLAS Conference Travel Award (2015)

Amelia Jackson Senior Studentship at Exeter College (2014-2015)
[scholarship covering full tuition costs and living allowance]

Exeter College Travel Grant (2014)

Exeter College Academic Grant (2014, 2015)

Santander Academic Travel Award (2014)

First Class - BA (Hons) in Politics, Psychology and Sociology - St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge (2013)

St. Edmund's College Tutorial Awards (2011, 2012, 2013)

St. Edmund’s College Travel Grant (2012)

Student Scholarship: EMCDDA Summer School - Illicit Drugs in Europe (2012)

Publications

Assessment of the first year of the legally regulated cannabis market in Uruguay. Global Drug Policy Observatory Situation Analysis - January 2015

The international dimension of drug policy reform in Uruguay. International Journal of Drug Policy - May 2016

America's other vote: Cannabis legalisation on the ballot. OxPol Blog - November 2016.

Conference Papers and Presentations

Legitimizing Legalization or Restricting Reform? The Media's Role in Uruguay's Drug Policy Reform Process. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies in Aberdeen, Scotland - April 2015.

The International Dimension of Drug Policy Reform in Uruguay. Presented at the 9th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy in Ghent, Belgium - May 2015.

The Economist on Drugs: Waging War on the “War on Drugs.” Presented at “175 years of The Economist: An International Conference” at UCL, England - September 2015.

De Palabras y Hechos: The Rhetoric and Reality of Cannabis Reform in Latin America (2009-2016). Presented at the 10th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy in Sydney, Australia - May 2016.

Cannabis Policy Reform in Uruguay and Beyond. Presented at the “Mexico Summit 2016 - Lessons from Global Drug Policy: Moving on from the 2016 UNGASS” at UCL, England – June 2016.

5 Lessons from Cannabis Activism in Uruguay. Presented at the "Symposium: Drugs, Politics and Society in the Global South" at Oxford University, England - October 2016.