Mara Sagert

Mara Sagert works as a research assistant at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where she contributes to the Powering Wealth project. Her interests include the rise of authoritarianism, securitization, violent non-state actors, and criminal governance in Latin America.

Mara first joined Powering Wealth as a student research assistant at Freie Universität Berlin. The project examines the influence of family capitalism on energy transitions in Germany and Mexico, tracing how industrial families have shaped energy policy across generations since the late 19^th century. Before joining the Powering Wealth project, Mara interned at Oxfam México, where she supported a research project on the ties between Mexican entrepreneurs and the energy sector. She was also an intern in the German Bundestag, working at the offices of MP Frank Bsirske (Bündnis 90/​Die Grünen) and MP Frank Schwabe (SPD). Other working experience includes a stint at Brunswick Group, an advisory firm for strategic communication and public affairs, as well as being a working student at Capgemini Invent, supporting sustainability projects in the public sector, and at the Chair of Institutional Economics, Organisational Governance & Transcultural Leadership at Zeppelin Universität (in Friedrichshafen am Bodensee).

Mara is completing a master’s degree in political science at the University of Potsdam, with a focus on international relations and on security and development in Latin America. She is currently writing her master’s thesis on securitization and the rise of authoritarianism in Latin America, focusing on public support for the so-called Bukele model in El Salvador. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology, politics and economics from Zeppelin University, where she wrote her thesis on the gendered effects of EU economic sanctions against Iran, and spent an Erasmus semester at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid.