Benjamín Rascón Gracia ‘24

Benjamín Rascón Gracia is a senior studying political science and global affairs. He has had diverse research experiences through the Kellogg Institute, assisting Professor Julia Kowalski in producing content and textual analysis of articles on birth control policy during India's democratic transition and then assisting Professor Scott Mainwaring on several research projects on Latin American democracy. The past two years as an ISP Scholar, he has analyzed attitudes towards democracy across Latin America as well as a democratic culture of human rights in Argentina with Dr. Mainwaring. This year, he will continue assisting Dr. Mainwaring by exploring the democratic transition in Uruguay. 

Rascón Gracia has also received several grant awards to support his academic endeavors and research interests. During the summer of 2022, he received a CSLC Summer Language Abroad award to study Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro. He also received funding through the Experiencing the World Fellowship to conduct exploratory research on his senior thesis. Prior to this, he took the three-week study abroad program in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to study Brazilian pluralist democracy. In 2023, he returned to São Paulo for a semester abroad at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (entirely in Portuguese), where he studied Brazilian politics and international relations. During this period, he interned at the State Legislative Assembly of São Paulo and furthered his research on the social basis for voting during the 2022 presidential election. 

Thesis Title: The Brazilian Brahmin Left; the Influence of Social Class on the Brazilian 2022 Presidential Vote