Julia Buxton

Julia joined Liverpool John Moores University at the end of 2024. She was previously British Academy Global Professor with a four-year project exploring innovation and change in global illicit drug markets and government policy responses. This was hosted in the Department of Criminology at the University of Manchester. Prior to Manchester, she was Professor, Associate and Acting Dean in the School of Public Policy at Central European University in Budapest.

She is a Latin Americanist by background. Julia conducted her PhD research in Venezuela (1998, LSE) and was adjunct professor of the Venezuela Studies Programme at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. She has published books and journal articles on Venezuela's political shift from a two-party democracy to the Bolivarian revolution under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.

Her research on the illicit drug trade focuses on the digitalisation of supply, evolving synthetic markets, enforcement violence and the impact of drugs and anti-drug strategy on conflict, crime, exclusion and development. Recent publications and PhD supervision have been concerned with gendered aspects, addressing the negative impact of drug criminalisation on women.