22 September 2026
PhD student reflects on 'fairytale ending' to studies
Havin Aydin
Research into how political institutions withstand pressure formed the backdrop for Cristina Ramirez’s doctoral thesis at King’s.
Cristina, a member of the Department of Political Economy, recently completed her PhD after successfully defending her thesis in an oral examination known as a viva voce and passing with no revisions.
Her research compared the United States and Brazil during the presidencies of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, examining how differences in the design of their political institutions affected each country’s democratic resilience.
Using court rulings, archival material and media reporting, Cristina traced how institutions in each country prepared for, responded to and adapted following periods of political pressure.
One of her most striking findings was that Brazil’s institutions performed more effectively in terms of accountability. Her research also suggests that countries can learn from previous periods of authoritarian rule and use that experience to create institutions better able to resist future political interference.
Cristina’s route into academia began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Living in Spain and working in the communications department of a bank, she began reconsidering an idea she had first contemplated after completing her Master’s.
“At the beginning I was like, ‘I’ll give this a shot’,” she said. “The more I worked on the proposal, the more I wanted the PhD.”
Cristina’s doctoral research was supervised by Dr Rod Dacombe, Dr Colin Jennings and Dr Maia King, whom she thanked for their guidance throughout the project.
Her viva was examined by Steven Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die and a leading scholar of democracy, and Francisco Panizza, an expert on populism and Latin American politics. Both scholars’ work featured extensively in Cristina’s thesis, and she described them as her ideal team of examiners.
“It was like a fairytale ending for me,” she said.
Cristina now hopes to develop her thesis into a book while continuing work on several academic papers. She is also teaching and plans to pursue further opportunities in academia alongside her work in journalism and political commentary.
Reflecting on becoming Dr Ramirez, Cristina said she felt proud but, above all, grateful to those who supported her.
“Doing a PhD takes a village,” she said. “This is not something I would have been able to do on my own.”