Dr Belén Villegas Plá: New Departmental Lecturer in the Political Economy of Latin America

Dr Belén Villegas Plá has been appointed as the new Departmental Lecturer in the Political Economy of Latin America, a joint post at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and the Oxford Department of International Development in the University of Oxford.  A political economist with a primary research focus on inequality and development, social protection, and the care economy, Dr Belén Villegas Plá will take up her post this coming Michaelmas Term.

After completing her BA and MA studies at the Universidad de la República in Uruguay and the Universität de Barcelona in Spain, she completed her PhD in Politics and International Relations at the University of York, UK, with a thesis on ‘The political economy of tax and labour policies in Chile and Uruguay, 2020-2024’. She has developed two main lines of research. The first examines the political economy of distributive policies in Latin America, with recent publications in Competition & Change, Review of International Political Economy, Finance and Space, Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política, and Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales. The second explores social reproduction and the care economy, with articles published in Development and Change, Global Social Policy, The International Journal of Care and Caring, Third World Quarterly, and New Political Economy, among others. She has also authored and co-authored articles, book chapters, and reports for international organizations on these topics, published by the Advancing Learning & Innovation on Gender Norms (ALIGN), Siglo XXI editores, CLACSO, and the Uruguayan Ministry of Social Development.

For many years, Dr Belén Villegas Plá has collaborated as an international consultant for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, UN). In this role, she has conducted research, co-authored publications, provided technical assistance, and supported the implementation of care policies across several Latin American countries. Additionally, she has contributed to research, consulting, reports, and applied studies for various regional and global institutions, including UN Women, CIEDUR, ODI Global, FCDO (UK), Institute of Communication and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and others. Before that, she worked as a research and teaching assistant on various projects and courses at the Universidad de la República, Sorbonne University, and King’s College London, among others. She has received scholarships, awards, and grants from the Carolina Foundation, the National Agency for Innovation and Research of Uruguay, the Sectoral Commission for Scientific Research of Uruguay, CLACSO, and the Baltazar Garzón Foundation.