About Me
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Politics and International Relations at Monash University and Program Manager for the Women and Democratic Change Initiative, which brings together activist-scholars from challenging and conflict-afflicted countries to better understand women's leadership and participation in social movements. My doctoral research focuses on militarization and violence against women in Mexico's so-called "war on drugs" from a feminist political economy perspective.
I have twelve years of experience informing and advancing progressive policies and social justice issues at the global and local levels, including drug policy reform in Mexico, racial justice and police accountability in the United States, and WPS and feminist foreign policy at the multilateral level. Before embarking on my PhD journey, I worked with diverse government and non-governmental organizations, such as Mexico's Permanent Mission to the UN, the Mexican Senate, the New York City government, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Center for Policing Equity (CPE) and Data Cívica. As a graduate student, I also worked as a Research Assistant at the Harvard-based think tank, Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD), in Cambridge, Massachusets and Kathmandu, Nepal.
From 2017 to 2019, I completed a Master's in Public Policy at Harvard University as a recipient of the Fulbright-Garcia Robles scholarship. I specialized in Economics and Political Development, focusing on feminist political theory, criminal justice, and advanced econometrics. As co-chair of the HKS Gender Policy Union, I collaborated with local organizations and led several advocacy initiatives on sexual and reproductive rights and menstrual health. After graduating from Harvard, I received a grant from the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard to participate in the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN General Assembly. At the time, I also worked as a political and technical adviser to the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN on gender equality and women's human rights.
My Ph.D. is fully funded by the Monash International Tuition Scholarship and Monash Graduate Scholarship. I am the recipient of several other scholarships and awards, including the Women in International Security 2021 Next Generation Fellowship, the 2017-2019 Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship, the 2019 Harvard Women and Public Policy Program Oval Summer Fellowship, the 2018 Harvard Dubin Center for Public Leadership Summer Fellowship, the 2017 - 2019 Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) Scholarship, the 2017 P.E.O. International Scholarship, the 2018 Harvard in Mexico Foundation Scholarship, and the 2015 Centro de Estudios Alonso Lujambio national essay award. I hold two Bachelor's Degrees in Political Science and International Relations with a special mention from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).
Work Samples
Articles, policy briefs, podcasts and more
Daniela Philipson, The World Today, February/March 2022 edition
The WPS Agenda in Mexico
Harvard Kennedy School Women's Network & Women in Defense, Diplomacy and Development Webinar, February 2022
Practicing Feminist Foreign Policy in the Everyday
WILPF Germany Webinar, November 2021
Daniela Philipson García, Animal Político, March 2020.
Blog
October 31, 2024I was born in Mexico City but have lived in the United States for almost half my life. As a child, I lived in Florida, Indiana, and New Jersey. As an adult, I lived in Massachusetts and New York. When I was 11, I received a green card because of my father’s job. Ten years later, when I was 21 I...February 21, 2021In his 2014 State of the Union address, then President Barack Obama declared: “Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.”[i] Although the 77 cents statistic varies significantly...Education
Monash University
Ph.D. Candidate in Politics and International Relations (2022 - 2026)
Dissertation: Gender-based violence and militarization in Mexico
Harvard Kennedy School
Master's in Public Policy
Concentration in Political and Economic Development
Fulbright García-Robles
Scholarship Recipient
2017-2019 Scholar
Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations
Special recognition
Reach Out
You can also find me on Twitter at @daniphilipson