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Dr Raquel Rojas

Raquel Rojas is a Teaching Associate in Gender and Reproduction at the University of Cambridge. Her research explores issues of inequality and intersectionality, labour relations, and the push to transform caregiving from a private concern into a public policy matter. Raquel’s empirical work focuses primarily on Latin America, where she has conducted qualitative fieldwork examining the organisational experiences of household workers in Uruguay and Paraguay, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on care responsibilities, and the negotiations between various stakeholders involved in care policy debates. In line with her empirical focus, she is also interested in efforts to decolonise the sociological canon by incorporating contributions from the Global South.

Before joining the University of Cambridge, Raquel was a researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin (2021-2023), and a postdoctoral researcher at MECILA, the Maria Sibylla Merian Centre for Conviviality and Inequality in Latin America (2023-2024). She was also a Princeton PLAS Fellow in 2024.

Raquel holds a PhD in Sociology from the Freie Universität Berlin and an MA in Social Sciences from Humboldt University of Berlin. Since 2018, she has been recognised as a Level I researcher by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT-Paraguay).

Research Interests

Sociology of Gender, Social Reproduction, Feminisms, Social Policy, Decolonial and Postcolonial Sociology, Global Entangled Inequalities, Latin America

Teaching

SOC10: Sociology of Gender

Graduate supervision
Raquel is open to supervising MPhil students in the following areas: Social Inequalities, Gender, Sociology of Care, Social Reproduction, Feminisms, Latin America

Publications

Book Chapters

Rojas, Raquel; Flamand, Laura; Piovani, Juan; and Aparicio, Rosario (2024) “The exacerbation of inequalities in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and its effects within and across households”, in Simone Maddanu and Emanuele Toscano (Eds.) Sociology of Pandemic: Inequalities, Social Justice and Democracy, London: Routledge, 21-37. DOI: 10.4324/9781003459682-3

Rojas, Raquel (2023) “Work, Gender and Labor Organizing: Paid Domestic Workers’ Unions in Paraguay”, in Charmain Levy, Laureen Elgert and Valérie L'Heureux (Eds.) Social Movements and Social Change in Paraguay, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 129-153. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-25883-1_7

Rojas, Raquel (2022) “Building Networks, Bridging Divides? Organizational Experiences of Paid Domestic Workers in Uruguay and Paraguay”, in Katja Hujo and Maggie Carter (Eds.) Fault Lines and Front Lines: Shifting Power in an Unequal World, LONDON: UNRISD/Bloomsbury Academics, 209-225. DOI: 10.5040/9781350229068.0023

Rojas, Raquel (2022) “Cercanía física, distancia social. Trabajo doméstico remunerado y (des)encuentros en hogares de América Latina”, in Mecila (Ed.) Convivialidad Desigualdad: explorando los nexos entre lo que nos une y lo que nos separa, Buenos Aires: CLACSO; San Pablo: Mecila, 477-521. Part of ISBN: 978-987-813-216-7

Rojas, Raquel (2021) "Essential yet undervalued. Paid domestic work, migration, and the struggles for labor rights in Uruguay and Paraguay", in Ximena Alba and Bruno Miranda (Eds.) Migrant Labor in Global Chains, Berlin: Tranvía, 177-200. Part of ISBN: 978-3-946327-28-8

Rojas, Raquel (2019) “De Asunción a Ginebra: Trabajo doméstico remunerado y redes de activismo laboral en Paraguay”, in Diana Marisol Hernández Suárez et al. (Eds.) Giros espacio temporales: Repensando los entrelazamientos globales desde América Latina. Berlin: Tranvía, 47-64. Part of ISBN: 978-3-946327-16-5

 

Journal Articles

Rojas, Raquel; Lachi, Marcello; and Bruno, Sebastián (2024) “Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment and income in Paraguayan border cities”, in Novos Estudos CEBRAP, 43(03): 435-459. DOI 10.25091/S01013300202400030004

Rojas, Raquel (2021) “Same Work, Same Value? Paid Domestic Workers’ and Housewives’ Struggles for Rights in Uruguay and Paraguay”, Current Sociology, 69(6): 843-860. DOI: 10.1177/0011392120969763

Rojas, Raquel (2015) “Por su propio bien. Condicionalidad y la imagen de la población pobre en políticas sociales”, Revista Novapolis Vol. 8, 73-101. Part of ISSN: 2077-5172

Rojas, Raquel (2014) “Programa de Transferencias Monetarias Condicionadas: ¿Puerta de entrada a derechos sociales? Un análisis a partir del Programa Tekoporã”, REVICSO Vol. 1, 37-57. Part of ISSN: 2409-1189

 

Other

Rojas, Raquel (2022) “Another Turn of the Screw: The COVID-19 Crisis and the Reinforced Separation of Capital and Care”, Mecila Working Papers Series No. 48, São Paulo: MECILA. DOI: 10.46877/rojas.2022.48

Rojas, Raquel and Ferraro, Paola. (2020) “Sindicalismo Paraguayo y Participación de Mujeres. Avances y Desafíos”, Trabajo y Justicia Social, Buenos Aires: FES – Fridrich Ebert Stiftung. Part of ISBN: 978-987-4439-47-5

Rojas, Raquel (2020) “Physically Close, Socially Distant. Paid Domestic Work and (Dis-) encounters in Latin America’s Private Households”, Mecila Working Papers Series No. 27, São Paulo: MECILA. DOI: 10.46877/rojasscheffer.2020.27

Rojas, Raquel (2020) “Articulating Differences and Inequalities. Paid Domestic Workers’ and Housewives’ Struggles for Rights in Uruguay and Paraguay”, Mecila Working Papers Series, No. 21, São Paulo: MECILA.

Rojas, Raquel (2015) “El programa de Transferencias Monetarias Condicionadas Tekoporã en Paraguay: ¿Lucha contra la pobreza y desigualdad o por espacios de poder politico?”, in Manuel Góngora Mera, Sérgio Costa, Guilherme Leite Gonçalves (Eds.) Derecho en América Latina, ¿corrector o(re)productor de desigualdades? Working Paper desiguALdades.net Vol. 81, 160-179.

Grants and Projects

Fellowship, Princenton University, PLAS – Program in Latin American Studies (2024)

Third Party Funding, Margherita von Brentano Center, Seed Funding Grants for innovative projects in gender studies. Production of Podcast on Gender and Migration, with Ximena Alba & Karlotta Bahnsen (2023)

Third Party Funding, DFG - German Research Foundation, Focus Funding COVID-19 Impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the Global South. Project on Paraguayan Border Cities, with Sérgio Costa (2021/2022)

Fellowship, Mecila - Maria Sibylla Merian Centre: Conviviality-Inequality Latin America, Founded by BMBF - Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (2021)

Researcher for Social Sciences Level I, CONACYT - National Council of Science and Technology, Paraguay (since 2018)

Scholarship, DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service, Congress participation - 18th ILERA World Conference in Seoul, South Korea (2018)

Scholarship, International Research Group Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Summer Academy Labour, Rights and Mobility in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017)

Doctoral Fellowship, International Research Training Group Between Spaces. Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalization, Freie Universität Berlin Germany (2016-2019)

Scholarship, DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service, Master studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (2012-2014)

Media Articles

Rojas, Raquel (2024) “Putting Care on the Political Agenda: International Symposium Care that Matters, Matters of Care,” Global
Rojas, Raquel (2021) “Sindicalismo con perspectiva de género: el verdadero sindicalismo de clase”, Tereré Cómplice, 22nd Februar

Research Groups & Affiliations

FG DeKolonial e.V. - Association for racism-critical, postcolonial and decolonial theory and practice

CLACSO - Latin American Council of Social Sciences, Working Group Labor, productive and service configurations, new labor subjects

LASA - Latin American Studies Association, Sections Labor Studies and Gender and Feminist Studies

RITHAL - International Research Network on Household Work in Latin America

APIF - Paraguayan Association of Feminist Researchers (Founding member)

APS - Paraguayan Sociology Association

Job Title:
Teaching Associate in Gender and Reproduction
Raquel Rojas
Contact Information:

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge