Maria Sanchez joined the Colorado College faculty in 2022. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota. Her research explores the politics of how international institutions exert authority over national governments, particularly in the areas of human rights and post-conflict reconciliation. Her current book project, based on her dissertation titled Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts, investigates how the European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and African Court on Human and People’s Rights have developed very different approaches to interpreting the boundaries of their authority over member state governments, resulting in uneven regional application of purportedly global human rights principles. Maria teaches courses on international law, international relations theory, justice for state-sponsored human rights abuses, transnational migration policy, and European Union politics.