Joseph Bouchard: Digging Deep into Latin American Security—and Finding His Path Forward

With a keen interest in state violence and Latin American public policy, Joseph Bouchard came to NPSIA ready to turn research into real-world insight. After initially turning down a funded offer from NPSIA to study abroad in Texas to understand the American perspective on Latin American security, Joseph returned to Canada with a renewed focus, and ultimately found the right fit at Carleton. “NPSIA’s funding and reputation stood out,” he says. “But more importantly, I had the chance to work with Professor Jean Daudelin, whose work aligned perfectly with my interests.”

Those interests – Latin American security, conflict, and governance – had taken root early. Joseph first became passionate about the region during an immersive high school Spanish program, followed by travels to Cuba and a summer in Chiapas, Mexico. What began as curiosity evolved into academic dedication, including a Latin American Studies minor and Spanish and Portuguese courses during his undergrad. “At some point,” he reflects, “basically all I did was about the region. That hasn’t changed since.” Before coming back to Canada, Joseph spent 18 months working as a freelance journalist and consultant in the region, mostly in Colombia, Bolivia, and Brazil.

At NPSIA, wanting to do serious research, Joseph chose the thesis stream, a rarity among NPSIA MA students. His fieldwork in Salvador, Brazil focused on police violence in Bahia, a state with one of the highest homicide rates in the country. “What struck me was the contradiction,” he explains. “You have a progressive government overseeing massive increases in police killings, often against young, poor, Black men, the very group that the Workers’ Party claims to represent, while incarceration rates were low and stagnating.” Digging into these paradoxes, Joseph’s research highlighted a broader regional trend toward militarized policing and the erosion of democratic safeguards in the name of fighting crime.

His time at NPSIA wasn’t without challenges; clearing ethics approvals, navigating fieldwork in unfamiliar territory, and writing under pressure. But key mentors like Jean Daudelin, Valerie Percival, and Professor Dane Rowlands helped him grow. “Dane’s econ course was brutally difficult, but it reshaped how I approach problems. I barely passed it, but I still use a lot of the concepts now; that wouldn’t have happened without him pushing me to do better. Jean also encouraged me to sharpen my thinking, and his focused mentorship have been immensely helpful. I came out of this program a much better writer and researcher because of it.”

Joseph’s experience also confirmed that a government policy job wasn’t his path; his co-op at Public Safety made that clear. Instead, he’s now heading to the University of Virginia for a PhD in Politics, with support from a prestigious SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. He plans to continue researching security policy, rights, and democracy in Latin America, expanding on the work he began at NPSIA.