Esther Hernández-Medina

Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies
With Pomona Since: 2018
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Professor Hernández-Medina is a feminist academic, public policy expert and activist from the Dominican Republic, passionate about answering the question of how historically marginalized groups such as women, racial, ethnic and sexual minorities are able (if at all) to change public policy in their favor. She has done research on this topic in Mexico, Brazil and her own country by looking at citizen participation in urban policies in São Paulo and Mexico City, the history of and recent achievements by the Dominican feminist movement, and the participatory budgeting model in the Dominican Republic and São Paulo.

    Her academic work has been published in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Caribbean Studies, Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies and Estudios Sociales. She also published a book chapter on the experience of teaching and learning during the pandemic with then Pomona senior Malak Afaneh in the edited volume Global Feminist Autoethnographies During COVID-19: Displacements and Disruptions (Routledge, editors Beoku-Betts, Josephine; Akosua Darkwah; Melanie Heath; and Bandana Purkayastha).

    Hernández-Medina is currently working as a guest co-editor of a volume on “Embodiment and Representations of Beauty” for Advances in Gender Research (Emerald, editors Vicky Demos and Marcia Segal) along with Sharina Maillo-Pozo (University of Georgia). And her book chapter “The Right to A Complete Life: The Struggles of the Dominican Feminist Movement” will be published in the fall in the edited volume Women’s Rights in Movement: Dynamics of Feminist Change in Latin America and the Caribbean (Springer, editors Inés M. Pousadela and Simone Bohn).

    As a big believer in collaborative research and action, she has been twice awarded the Humanities Studio Faculty Fellowship at Pomona. The first time, she was part of the group of senior students and faculty working on the theme of Movement during academic year 2021-2022. She will be a HS fellow once again with the group that will work on the theme of Joy for this upcoming academic year (2023-2024). Hernández-Medina has also been a recipient of the Inclusive Pedagogy Grant and the Open Education Faculty Fellowship awarded by Pomona College and the Claremont Colleges respectively.

    As a feminist activist, she co-founded Tertulia Feminista Magaly Pineda, along with Yildalina Tatem Brache in the Dominican Republic. Named after the most important contemporary feminist leader in the country and one of the most renowned ones in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Tertulia aims to provide a safe space for all women to debate and learn about historical and contemporary issues from a feminist perspective.

    More recently, young feminists have created similar spaces in different parts of the country: Tertulia Feminista del Sur in Barahona, Tertulia Feminista Petronila Gómez in Santiago, and Aquelarre RD in Bonao. After Tatem Brache’s departure last November to work on other projects, Hernández-Medina now co-coordinates la Tertulia along with Rossy Matos and Angélica Rodríguez Bencosme. Additionally, Hernández-Medina is a long-time member of Foro Feminista Magaly Pineda, one of the most important feminist activist groups in the country also named after Pineda.

    Areas of Expertise

    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • Dominican Republic
    • Latin American Social Movements
    • Dominican Feminist Movement
    • Democracy and Citizen Participation in Public Policy
    • Gender and Development
    • Development, Globalization, and Global Cities
    • Public Policy and Strategic Planning
  • Work

    Work

    Hernández-Medina, Esther. (forthcoming). “The Right to a Complete Life”: The Struggles of the Dominican Feminist Movement” in Inés M. Pousadela and Simone R. Bohn (eds). Women's Rights in Movement- Dynamics of Feminist Change in Latin America and the Caribbean. Springer Publishing

    Hernández-Medina, Esther. (forthcoming). Guest co-editor with Sharina Maillo-Pozo. Special Volume “Embodiment and Representations of Beauty” Advances in Gender Research, Volume 34. Vicky Demos and Marcia Segal (eds). Emerald Publishing

    Hernández-Medina, Esther and Malak Afaneh. 2022. “The Inequality the Pandemic Unveils: Teaching and Learning in the Times of COVID” in Beoku-Betts, Josephine; Akosua Darkwah; Melanie Heath; and Bandana Purkayastha (eds.) Global Feminist Autoethnographies During COVID-19: Displacements and Disruptions. Routledge Press

    Hernández-Medina, Esther. 2018. “El ‘derecho a una vida completa’: Notas Incompletas sobre el Movimiento Feminista Dominicano” [The ‘Right to a Complete Life:’ Incomplete Notes about the Dominican Feminist Movement]. Estudios Sociales Vol. XLI, No. 157. Septiembre-Diciembre 2018

    Hernández Medina, Esther y Yildalina Tatem Brache. 2017. “Magaly Pineda, Una Mujer Adelantada a su Tiempo” [Magaly Pineda, a Woman Ahead of Her Time]. Revista Ecos, Órgano del Instituto de Historia de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Vol. XXIV, No. 14. Enero-Junio 2017

    Hernández-Medina, Iluminada Esther. 2014. Urban Regime Change and Citizen Participation in Urban Policies: Conflict, Collaboration, and Corporatism in Mexico City (Doctoral dissertation). Brown University, Sociology Department

    Hernández Medina, Esther. 2013. “El Funcionamiento del Alto Gobierno en República Dominicana” [Functioning of the Executive Branch Coordinating Institutions in the Dominican Republic] en Nuria Cunill Grau (coord.) Fortalecimiento del Alto Gobierno para el Diseño, Conducción y Evaluación de Políticas Públicas. Caracas: Centro Latinoamericano de Administración para el Desarrollo (CLAD)

    Hernández-Medina, Esther. 2010. “Social Inclusion through Participation: The Case of the Participatory Budgeting in São Paulo.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 34(3): 512-532

    Hernández-Medina, Esther. 2007. “Globalizing Participation: ‘Exporting’ the Participatory Budgeting Model from Brazil to the Dominican Republic” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 51: 69-118

    Itzigsohn, José; Carlos Dore Cabral; Esther Hernández Medina; Obed Vásquez. 1999. “Mapping Dominican transnationalism: narrow and broad transnational practices” Ethnic and Racial Studies 22(2): 316-39, March 1999

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D. in Sociology, Brown University
    Providence, Rhode Island

    Master in Public Policy, Harvard University
    Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Master in Gender and Development, Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC)
    Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

    B.A. in Economics, Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC)
    Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Transnational Feminist Theories
    • Intro to Gender and Women’s Studies
    • Gender and Development in Latin America
    • The Right to Choose? Abortion Rights in Latin America and the United States
    • Women and Power in Latin America (with Professor April Mayes)
    • Sociology through Literature
    • Globalizing Participation: Citizens Engaging the State Around the World
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Year Award/Honor
    2017 Outstanding Alumna Award at the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC) awarded for work as a feminist scholar, activist and public sector reformer in the Dominican Republic on behalf of women and other disadvantaged groups. Social Sciences Area, INTEC, November
    2005 "Alden Speare Jr. Memorial Award" to the most distinguished M.A. thesis from the Sociology Department during academic year 2004/2005. Sociology Department, Brown University, May
    2002/2003 Taiwanese Government Scholarship awarded for completing the Master in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
    2001/2002 Inter-American Development Bank/Government of Japan Scholarship awarded for completing the Master in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
    1994/1995 Network of Women’s NGOs Scholarship awarded for the Master in Gender and Development at the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
    1990/1993 “Young National Talent” Award and Scholarship awarded by the Outstanding Students Program at the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic