Mercedes Martínez Milantchi

Mercedes Martínez Milantchi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University and a PhD Minor in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Her dissertation, tentatively titled, Developing a Fiscal Paradise: Public Archaeology, Heritage Activism and Indigenous Resurgence in Puerto Rico, examines the socio-political effects of Act 60 (formerly Act 20/22), a tax incentive for wealthy US citizens and foreigners that requires re-settlement in Puerto Rico. Through ethnographic research, she explores how new forms of heritage are mobilized by Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists against neoliberal land grabs. Broadly her work engages with the relationship between identity, heritage, Indigeneity and racial formations. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as American Anthropologist, Curator, Museum Worlds and Anthropological and Archaeological Sciences. 

Prior to Stanford, she worked at the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research at the British Museum, earned her bachelor's degree from Yale University and a master's from the Erasmus Mundus program (Évora, Sapienza, and Aristotle Universities).