Raul Zepeda Gil

Raúl is a Mexican sociologist and political scientist. He is a Lecturer in Development Studies at the Oxford Department of International Development, focusing on Latin America.

Raul’s research interests lie around the nexus between development, inequalities, and violence in crime and conflict. He is currently focusing on youth recruitment by criminal organisations in Latin America. Raul is also interested in climate change and disaster prevention, politics of inequality, social mobility, education policy, civil-military relations, peacebuilding, and the politics of the war on drugs.

His recent research documents about criminal wars, socioeconomic development and violence, and the political economy of the Mexican drug war have been published in Third World Quarterly, The Journal of Crime and Justice, and the series of Routledge Studies in Latin American Politics.

Raul holds a PhD in Sociology of War from the School of Security Studies in King’s College London, a master’s degree in political science from El Colegio de México and a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM).

Before working in academia, Raul had an extensive career in government. He started as a Junior Officer on Democratic Culture and Peace in the Morelos Government. He advanced as a Junior Researcher on Mexican politics at the Institute Belisario Dominguez of the Mexican Senate, an external advisor on legislative affairs for the Undersecretary of Budget of the Mexican Finance Secretariat, and Director General of Legislative Liaison of the Secretariat of Economy.