Mariela Noles Cotito is an Afro-Peruvian scholar and doctoral student in Sociology at Rice University whose research examines how racialization becomes embedded in law, political institutions, and public policy, and how these processes shape citizenship and political membership in Latin America. Her work focuses particularly on Afro-descendant populations in the Andean region, asking how historically marginalized populations become recognized—or remain excluded—as political subjects.

Building on her research on Afro-Peruvian citizenship, ethnoracial legislation, and the institutional recognition of Afro-descendant populations in Peru, her current work explores the relationship between race and the state: how institutions produce, reproduce, and sometimes transform racial hierarchies through legal and policy frameworks. Her interdisciplinary approach draws on sociology, law, political science, and Latin American studies. 

Before beginning her doctoral studies at Rice, Noles Cotito was a lecturer and researcher at Universidad del Pacífico in Lima, Peru, where she held courses on Political Science and on Discrimination and Public Policy. She has also worked with Peruvian public institutions on human rights, gender equality, democracy and governance, diversity, and policies concerning Afro-Peruvian populations. In 2024–2025, she was a Custer Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.