Skip to Main Content
You are now in the main content area
Portrait of Mercedes Isabel Botto

Mercedes Isabel Botto

Tenured Professor, National University of Buenos Aires; FLACSO, Argentina
EducationPhD, European University Institute
Website  (external link, opens in new window) 

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University

Spring 2026

Career Achievements

Mercedes Botto holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA, Argentina) and a PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute (EUI, 1999, Florence, Italy). She works as a professor, researcher, and national and international consultant for organizations such as MERCOSUR, INTAL, and UNDP. Her areas of expertise include trade integration processes and, more recently, migration policies and regional migration governance. She is a Tenured Professor (by public competition) in the Political Science program at the University of Buenos Aires and teaches in the Master’s in International Relations and the PhD program at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO, Argentina). Since 2004, she has been part of the National Researcher Career (CONICET), and since 2018 she has also served—again through public competition—as Director of the Institute for Social Sciences Research of Latin America (IICSAL), a joint center of CONICET & FLACSO.

Relevant Publications

Botto, M. I. (2023). Migración venezolana y acción colectiva en Argentina (2015-2022) [Venezuelan migration and collective action in Argentina (2015-2022)]. Revista Temas de Antropología y Arqueología, (24).

Botto, M. I. (2021). Crisis-induced agenda setting in the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Journal of International Relations and Development, 24, 821–845. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-021-00239-y

Botto, M. I. (2017). El Mercosur y sus crisis: Análisis de interpretaciones sobre el fracaso de la integración regional sudamericana. Estado & Comunes, Revista de Políticas y Problemas Públicos, 2(5), 155–176.

Botto, M. I. (2016). The role of epistemic communities in the "makability" of MERCOSUR. In The EU and World Regionalism (pp. 171–185). Routledge.

Botto, M. I. (2015). América del Sur y la integración regional: ¿Quo vadis? Los alcances de la cooperación regional en el MERCOSUR. CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política, 11(21), 9–38.  

Botto, M. I. (2015). La transnacionalización de la educación superior: ¿Qué papel juegan los nuevos regionalismos en la difusión de estas ideas? El caso del MERCOSUR (1992-2012). Revista Iberoamericana de Educación Superior, 6(16), 90–109.  

Botto, M. I. (Ed.). (2007). Saber y política en América Latina: El uso del conocimiento en las negociaciones comerciales internacionales. Prometeo Libros.

Botto, M. I., Delich, V., & Tussie, D. (2003). El nuevo escenario político regional y su impacto en la integración. Nueva Sociedad, (186), 114–127.