Esther Hernández-Medina

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.