Agustina S. Paglayan
AWARD-WINNING SCHOLAR. AUTHOR. EDUCATOR. POLITICS & POLICY EXPERT.
Agustina S. Paglayan is a political science and public policy professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development. She is an expert in the interplay between politics and education. Her research has received numerous awards from the American Political Science Association for deepening our understanding of democracy, autocracy, political economy, political history, public policy, and labor politics. Her findings have been featured in The Economist, NPR, the Washington Post, and other media. She has consulted for the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
In her new book Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education (Princeton University Press, 2024), Paglayan shows that education systems in the West emerged not from democratic ideals or industrialization needs but from governments' desire to control citizens. This insight has key implications for the future of democracy, education systems, economic development, and foreign aid. You can order the book here.
Paglayan's research is interdisciplinary. She holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University, an MA in education policy (Stanford), an MPP (Georgetown University) and a Licenciatura en Economia (Universidad de San Andres, Argentina). During 2020-21, she served as the Founding President of the Education Politics and Policy Section within the American Political Science Association.
Her CV is available for download here.