McNair Paper Number 53, About the Author, October 1996

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donna Lee Van Cott is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government, Georgetown University. Her dissertation compares recent constitutional changes to increase the participation of indigenous peoples in Bolivia and Colombia. She will complete research for that project as a Fulbright Scholar in 1997. From 1992 to 1995 she directed a project on indigenous peoples and democracy for the Inter-American Dialogue; research for the articles presented here was conducted as part of that project.

Van Cott is editor and co-author of Indigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America (St. Martin's Press, 1994), and has published several articles on political and legal aspects of indigenous-state relations in Latin America. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.