{"id":1945,"date":"2025-06-12T11:48:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T15:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/?post_type=cu_story&p=1945"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:44:12","slug":"joseph-bouchard-digging-deep-into-latin-american-security-and-finding-his-path-forward","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/story\/joseph-bouchard-digging-deep-into-latin-american-security-and-finding-his-path-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Bouchard: Digging Deep into Latin American Security\u2014and Finding His Path Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Joseph Bouchard: Digging Deep into Latin American Security\u2014and Finding His Path Forward\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cNPSIA\u2019s funding and reputation stood out,\u201d he says. \u201cBut more importantly, I had the chance to work with Professor Jean Daudelin, whose work aligned perfectly with my interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cAt some point,\u201d he reflects, \u201cbasically all I did was about the region. That hasn\u2019t changed since.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cWhat struck me was the contradiction,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou have a progressive government overseeing massive increases in police killings, often against young, poor, Black men, the very group that the Workers\u2019 Party claims to represent, while incarceration rates were low and stagnating.\u201d Digging into these paradoxes, Joseph\u2019s research highlighted a broader regional trend toward militarized policing and the erosion of democratic safeguards in the name of fighting crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His time at NPSIA wasn\u2019t 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. \u201cDane\u2019s 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\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph\u2019s experience also confirmed that a government policy job wasn\u2019t his path; his co-op at Public Safety made that clear. Instead, he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cMore than anything,\u201d Joseph says, \u201cNPSIA gave me the tools\u2014and the focus\u2014to do research that matters. This work isn\u2019t about me, though I appreciate the attention. It\u2019s about progress. It\u2019s urgent, it’s real, and it affects people\u2019s lives every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":1947,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[78],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1945","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-2025-spring-grad-profiles"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1945\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}