Martin and I met on the steps of Sterling Memorial Library on a stormy afternoon last week. This weather was rather incongruent with our bright conversation and Martin's charming smile! Martin comes from the sunny country of Ecuador, but moved to Buenos Aires for his undergraduate degree in Political Science. After that he completed a Masters in Political Theory at the University of Essex in the UK before coming to America to pursue his PhD. Martin is at Yale as a visiting doctoral fellow from Tulane University, currently in his third year of what he hopes will be a five year PhD. Martin is studying populism in the Americas, and he's here at Yale predominantly to work closely with Prof. Paris Aslandis.
When asked how he became interested in populism, Martin gave a simple, succinct answer: he's lived in countries led by populist leaders all his life, and so it was only natural for him to become curious about why people like certain politicians. What moves people to feel represented by a certain person's political expression?
Martin is a man who makes the most of his time. When he isn't scanning newspapers, surveys, and articles for research, he is likely playing basketball at @PWG, cooking and prepping good food for the week, or stopping in at @theTrinityBar for the “7 item” or “Irish” Breakfast - which literally has seven items. Martin developed his love for Irish Breakfasts while he was studying in England. He also found his favorite tea there: Earl Grey *with* milk. But Martin's culinary expertise does not end with tea. No, it extends to the realm of wine connoisseurship. Martin took classes about wine in gastronomic schools while he was in Argentina, developing a vast repertoire of wine information that makes him quite the wine aficionado. Even so, his word of advice when asked for wine recommendations is: first, Argentinian Malbec is the best, but, second, “the best wine is the wine you like.”
Martin Mejia, from Ecuador, 3rd year Visiting Doctoral Fellow at the CLAIS”.
#yaleoiss #humansofOISS #YALE
