Vanessa Jiménez Sánchez

Profile

Academic background

I am a PhD student in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. I studied a bachelor´s degree (BSc) in Economics and also a BSc in Political Science and Public Administration at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). I then did a master’s degree in Social Sciences at Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (UAQ) and a postgraduate course in Economics at the University of Manchester. For carrying out my academic studies I have received several scholarships that have encouraged me and helped me to continue investigating around the beauty of social sciences. 

In between my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, I worked for almost five years in the Secretariat of Social Development in the Mexican Government (now Secretariat of Welfare) in the planning, monitoring and evaluation of social programmes aimed at the reduction of poverty. Likewise, during my academic journey I have worked as an associate professor in the School of Economics at UNAM and also as a research assistant at UAQ conducting investigation on various topics in the social sciences field.

My training in different disciplines in the social sciences has complemented by background in an interesting way and has allowed me to analyse social issues from an interdisciplinary perspective employing both, qualitative and quantitative methods. In previous research I have applied a socio-economic approach for studying topics such as development and economic growth in Mexico at different level of analysis (national, regional and local). Likewise, I have investigated about social development and social programmes to fight poverty in this country.

Since I joined the University of Leeds I have actively involved in the academic environment of the School of Sociology and Social Policy (SSP) attending diverse workshops and seminars offered by this school and by other departments in the University (Language Centre, ODPL, University Library). Similarly, I have attended advanced qualitative and quantitative methods training offered by the White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP). From the starting of my PhD, I have enrolled in different modules offered in the SSP and LUBS at the University of Leeds where I have studied inequalities from a sociology and social policy perspective and also topics such as poverty and inequality from an economic viewpoint. Equally, I joined a module on quantitative social research for data analysis in R.

Research interests

PhD research

Drawing from a socio-economic and a social policy perspective, my doctoral research examines the relationship between multidimensional poverty and economic growth in Mexico at the national and sub-national level employing quantitative methods. This research is also planning to carry out informal consultations with stakeholders using the Realist Synthesis methodology. A case study approach was chosen to capture both, the complexities of the relationship between poverty and growth in Mexico, and to obtain in-depth information that could help to inform and, hopefully, to propose changes or improvements in Mexico´s social policy. 

My research interests include a wide range of topics:

• Conceptualisation and measurement of unidimensional and multidimensional poverty
• Poverty and its relationship with development and economic growth
• Inequalities
• Poverty and its intersection with economic inequality, social class, labour market, gender, disability, health
• Welfare state and social policies for tackling poverty
• Realist Synthesis methodology
• Quantitative social research methodology 
• Visualisation and data analysis in the social sciences using R

Research groups and institutions

Centre for Transdisciplinary Methodology 

Centre for Research on Families, Life Course and Generations 

Qualifications

• MSc in Social Sciences (Distinction). UAQ, Mexico
• Postgrad in Economics. University of Manchester, UK
• BSc in Political Science and Public Administration (Distinction). UNAM, Mexico
• BSc in Economics. UNAM, Mexico