Dr. Helena Pérez Niño

Biography

Dr. Helena Pérez Niño is an Assistant Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. She specializes in political economy and development, with a focus on social organization, agricultural production, and the social impact of globalized agricultural markets. Her past research has analyzed agrarian reconstruction in the war-ravaged Mozambique-Malawi borderland, as well as state and private-led initiatives in post-conflict agrarian restructuring, specifically the expansion of contract farming. Currently, her research examines the impacts of agricultural intensification on gender and power relations, alongside the drivers behind underwhelming and frustrated productive upgrade trajectories. Dr. Pérez Niño has previously worked with UNICEF and UNHCR, and has held visiting fellow positions at IESE in Maputo and PLAAS in Cape Town. Her research has been supported by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the British Academy. Before joining the ISS, she lectured at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and at the Centre of Development Studies at the University of Cambridge. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Agrarian Change and is a co-founder of the Contract Farming Initiative research network.

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