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Cora Fernandez Anderson

  • Associate Professor of Politics
  • Chair of Politics
Cora Fernandez Anderson

Professor Fernandez Anderson’s research explores social mobilization as a possible path towards social change. With this goal in mind she has researched human rights movements demanding justice for human rights abuses as well as reproductive rights movements and their struggle to decriminalize abortion in the Southern Cone. She has published her work in the Journal of Women, Politics and Policy, and Politics, Groups and Identities and NACLA.

Her book (Routledge 2020) explores abortion reform in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. It focuses on the role alliances between civil society actors and sympathetic allies in government have played in the struggle for the legalization of abortion, and the conditions that have allowed or prevented these collaborations from happening.

Professor Fernandez Anderson is Mount Holyoke's advisor for the Five College Reproductive Health Rights and Justice Certificate Program.

She regularly teaches Introduction to Comparative Politics, Latin American Politics, Theories of Social Movements, Human rights in Latin America, The Politics of Abortion in the Americas, and Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Latin America.

Areas of Expertise

Comparative Politics, Latin American Politics, Social Movements, Reproductive Rights, Human Rights, Southern Cone

Education

  • Ph.D., M.A., University of Notre Dame

HAPPENING AT MOUNT HOLYOKE

Recent Campus News

Fisted hands are raised in the air.

Latin America leads fight against abuse in reproductive care

In an op-ed published in Ms. Magazine, Mount Holyoke professor Cora Fernandez Anderson raises awareness of the mistreatment of women during pregnancy and childbirth and highlights Latin America, which is at the forefront in the fight against obstetric violence.

Blanchard Hall, photo taken in the fall of 2023

Six faculty win grant fellowships

Six faculty members have been selected as recipients of the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship. The awards will fund travel to further advance their studies, leading to increased opportunities for students.

Javier Milei at his inauguration. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Milei and the threat to legal abortion in Argentina

Mount Holyoke associate professor of politics Cora Fernandez Anderson was quoted by Vox Media about Argentinian president Javier Milei and his plans to overturn abortion rights in that country.

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Recent Grants

Cora Fernandez Anderson received the LASA-Ford grant together with Mexican scholar Paola Sesia and Argentine scholar Celeste Jerez. The grant will finance a Latin American research group on Obstetric Violence. The group will produce the first edited collection in the English language of the work of Latin American scholars on this topic.

Recent Publications

Fernandez Anderson, C. (2024) “Legalizing Abortion in the Southern Cone,” The Journal of Political Science and Politics

Fernandez Anderson, C. (2022) “Legalizing Abortion in Argentina: Social Movements and Multiparty Coalitions,” The Journal of Politics in Latin America 14(2): 143-165.

Fernandez Anderson, C. (2021) Abortion and political parties in the Southern Cone: Electoral costs, platforms and feminist activists. In B. Sutton and N. Vaccarezza, (eds.) . New York, NY: Routledge.

Fernandez Anderson, C. (2021, January 11). "Argentina legalizes abortion until 14 weeks, and we have feminist organizers to thank" Ms. Magazine. Retrieved from

Fernandez Anderson, C. (2020, December 12). "Argentina's Lower Chamber legalizes abortion until 14 weeks" Ms. Magazine, Retrieved from: 

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