Karla Alvarado Romero

Karla Alvarado is a doctoral researcher at the HCIAS and the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of Heidelberg University and a member of the HCIAS Doctoral Research Group “Communication and Society in Ibero-America”. She is a scholarship holder of the State Graduate Funding Program (Landesgraduiertenförderungsprogramm) of the State of Baden-Württemberg, an associate of the Heidelberg Center for Digital Humanities (HCDH), and a member of the Heidelberg Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HGGS).

Her research focuses on the intersection of trade and information and communication technologies, particularly social media. She specializes on the rising phenomenon of ‘social commerce’ and its impact on digital governance in Latin America. She has a particular interest in this region's relations with China, the US and the EU. Her work includes the economic and strategic impact of big tech companies on international trade regulation, global governance and the design of multi-level digital policy. Her doctoral project is supervised by HCIAS Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alejandro Ecker (fist supervisor) and Prof. Dr. Tony Payan from Rice University, USA (second supervisor).

Karla holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and has worked for the Mexican government, the Organization of the American States in Panama, and Rice University in Houston. In addition to volunteering for several academic non-governmental organizations, she served as the Chair for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) and founded the IAPSS Mexico. She has co-organized several congresses and presented her work in international conferences in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland, Mexico, Germany and Romania, among others.

Doctoral Research Group Communication and Society in Ibero-America

Awards

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Best Graduate Paper Award 2023 by the International Studies Association (ISA) Asia-Pacific

Best Master's Thesis Award 2021 from the Center for Research on North America (CISAN-UNAM)

Publications

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Alvarado Romero, Karla Estephany. (2024). “La digitalización del comercio: ¿Qué está cambiando para las relaciones comerciales entre América Latina y China? In Enrique Dussel Peters, América Latina y el Caribe y China: Economía, Comercio e Inversión 2024. Red Académica de América Latina y el Caribe sobre China (Red ALC-China), México. pp. 149-166.
Alvarado Romero, Karla Estephany. (2023). “China and the Pacific Alliance: Obstacle or Opportunity for the Regional Digital Market?”. Cuadernos de Trabajo del CECHIMEX, No. 6, Centro de Estudios México-China (CECHIMEX), Facultad de Economía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico.
Alvarado Romero, Karla Estephany. (2023). "Europa Digital”. In Pérez Rodríguez et al. (coord.). Léxico de la Unión Europea, El (1.ª ed.). Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), México, pp. 169-181.
Alvarado Romero, Karla Estephany. (2021). “La relación entre México y Estados Unidos: Bilateralismo exacerbado e interdependencia asimétrica perpetuados por el T-MEC”. Revista del Observatorio de la Relación Binacional México-Estados Unidos, Edición Especial “Encuentros”, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), México, pp. 4-18.

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