{"id":8887,"date":"2026-09-29T11:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=8887"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:47:50","slug":"faculty-focus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall2026\/along-the-walk\/faculty-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Nick Caito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to be interested in politics if you\u2019re an Argentine,\u201d says Bel\u00e9n Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda, who came of age in the late 1990s as the country\u2019s economy unraveled. As protests swept the nation, her working-class family lived with the daily fear that her father would lose his job. \u201cYou could see it in the streets,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople were going through garbage to find food.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the University of Buenos Aires, Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda began studying sociology before turning to political science, drawn to questions about the relationship between economic actors and public policy. After earning a master\u2019s degree in Argentina and receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, she began her doctoral work at Harvard University. When it came time to define a research direction, she looked beyond social movements and unions\u2014subjects that traditionally dominated the field.<\/p>\n

Instead, Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda focused on economic elites. \u201cThey are the ones who actually make the decisions that shape our lives,\u201d she explains. \u201cThere was not much research being done on how they think and how they influence politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, she watched as agricultural producers\u2014one of Argentina\u2019s wealthiest groups\u2014led a four-month protest against a proposed tax hike. Roadblocks and strikes turned it into a national crisis, ending with the measure\u2019s defeat in congress.<\/p>\n

That moment stayed with her. In her first semester at Harvard, a course on Brazilian politics introduced a striking contrast: Representatives of that country\u2019s agribusiness were not protesting from the outside but serving as lawmakers. \u201cSo the same people who have to go in the street and protest in Argentina, they are making the rules in Brazil,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought that needed an explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n

That question became the foundation of her thesis and of her award-winning book, Agrarian Elites and Democracy in Latin America<\/em> (Cambridge University Press, 2024). In it, Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda examines Argentina, Brazil, and Chile to show how economic elites use both electoral and non-electoral strategies to bend democratic systems to their advantage.<\/p>\n

Beyond shaping her research, the doctoral program helped Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda discover another passion. After her second year, coursework gave way to independent research\u2014and long stretches of isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcademia can be very lonely sometimes because it\u2019s just about you and your ideas, which may seem great, but it\u2019s also really hard,\u201d says Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda. Becoming a teaching assistant offered a counterpoint. \u201cIt was the one thing that grounded me and gave me structure and a sense of purpose I did not find in research,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When it came time to apply for faculty positions, Trinity College appealed to her for its balance of teaching and research. She joined the faculty in 2019 with a dual appointment to the Political Science and International Studies Departments. \u201cI get students from all over campus in many of my classes since they fulfill different requirements,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In her \u201cClimate Change in the Global South\u201d course, for example, she encounters political science and environmental science students. \u201cThe class discussions are really rich because you have students who bring different expertise and different perspectives,\u201d she says. \u201cI really love that about Trinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some cases, that engagement leads to closer collaboration. Marlene Palma \u201925 worked with Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda as a research assistant before asking her to advise her thesis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot overstate how much of an impact Professor Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda has had on my academic and personal journey,\u201d says Palma, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in political science. \u201cHer presence at Trinity is invaluable, not just for the wealth of knowledge she brings to the institution but for the support, kindness, and dedication she offers to each of her students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda\u2019s research has increasingly focused on environmental politics. She is working with a co-author to examine why some Latin American countries have resisted signing the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, a treaty aimed at protecting environmental activists, who are killed at higher rates in the region than anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, I decided that the only thing that matters now is doing whatever you can to mitigate climate change,\u201d she says. \u201cWithout the planet, nothing else is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Eliott Grover<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PHOTO: NICK CAITO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to be interested in politics if you\u2019re an Argentine,\u201d says Bel\u00e9n Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda, who came of age in the late 1990s as the country\u2019s economy unraveled. As protests swept the nation, her working-class family lived with the daily fear that her father would lose his job. \u201cYou could see it in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"parent":8695,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8887","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFaculty Focus - The Trinity Reporter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/fall2026\/along-the-walk\/faculty-focus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faculty Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to be interested in politics if you\u2019re an Argentine,\u201d says Bel\u00e9n Fern\u00e1ndez Milmanda, who came of age in the late 1990s as the country\u2019s economy unraveled. 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