Maria Francisca Granda Benitez
Graduate Fellow in Municipal Finance and Governance
Maria Francisca Granda Benitez is the recipient of the 2024–25 Graduate Fellowship in Municipal Finance and Governance. She is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at UofT. She has a broad interest in the political economy of inequality and development, particularly in Latin American contexts. Francisca's doctoral research is driven by a desire to understand the relationships between grassroots organizations and local governments in fomenting the welfare of rural communities in the Highlands of Bolivia and Ecuador. She wants to use her research to inform development projects in Latin America. Francisca is fluent in Spanish and English, understands French, and is learning Kichwa.