Belen Mattos Castaneda

Belen Mattos Castaneda is a Foundation Fellow and PhD candidate at Durham Law School, focusing on gender and class biases in criminal sentencing of women convicted of newborn infant deaths in Argentina. She holds an AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Studentship and a Friends of Fulbright scholarship. Her roles include Research Fellow in the Northern Bridge EDI Action project at Newcastle University, Part-Time Tutor in Criminal Law modules, and Fellow in Durham’s Law with Foundation Programme.

Education:

• LLB from Universidad Nacional del Nordeste (Argentina)
• Distinction in Master of Arts in Women’s and Gender Studies (University of York/Universidad de Oviedo, Erasmus Mundus Scholarship)

Research Interests: Belen examines judicial discourses in criminal cases involving women accused of killing newborns, framing these as institutional symbolic gender-based violence. Her work analyzes court transcripts from Argentina (2019–2022), focusing on gender/class biases in sentencing, reproductive justice, and legal consequences of misogynistic/classist assumptions.

Awards:

• Friends of Fulbright scholarship (2023)
• Distinction in Dissertation (Master of Arts)

Advising & Grants:

• Supervised by Dr. Emma Milne and Prof. Clare McGlynn
• AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Studentship

Lab/Teams: Affiliated with the Gender & Law at Durham (GLAD), Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (CCLCJ), and Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA).