Benjamin Concha Gonzalez

Benjamin’s doctoral project studies the restoration and later development of Chilean democracy after General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship through the historical analysis of the concept of democracy as it was used and understood by political elites. In this sense, his research examines the different conceptions of democracy among the left, centre, and right-wing parties that led the Chilean transition to democracy between 1990 and 2023. Benjamin’s thesis draws on multiple written, oral, and audio-visual sources to identify from an intellectual history approach how parties developed democratic imaginaries that affected the conceptualisation of presidential elections, mass protests, civil-military relations, transitional justice, and socioeconomic policies. By analysing this paradigmatic case study of a transition to democracy in Latin America, his research aims to provide new insights into democratisation debates insofar as establishing a democracy in a post-authoritarian context is studied as both an institutional and an intellectual task: a process of reconstructing legitimate collective meanings for a political community. 

PhD

Supervisors: Nicola Miller (Primary supervisor), Thomas Rath (Secondary supervisor)
Working title: The Reconstruction of a Polis: An Intellectual History of the Concept of Democracy in Chile (1990-2023).
Expected completion date: 2027

Scholarships and Prizes

PhD: 

• London Arts & Humanities Partnership (AHRC) Scholarship (since 2023).
• London Arts & Humanities Partnership Student-Led Activity Award (Benjamín Concha and Rebekah Hodge), “Humanities at the Pub” Podcast (2024-2026). 

MA: 

• Miguel Cruchaga Tocornal Award for the best History postgraduate dissertation, Chilean Academy of History, 2023.
• Arnold Bauer Award for the best MA Thesis, Institute of History, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2022.
• MA Scholarship, 2020-2021, National Research and Development Agency of Chile (ANID)/Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion (COES). 

Undergraduate: 

• Simon Collier Award for best history monograph: ¿Moriens Libertas? El concepto de libertad romana en los Annales (I-VI) y el Agricola de Cornelio Tácito, Institute of History, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2018.
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, XV Program of Research and Creation for Faculty, 2018.
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,  Research Grant 2015 and 2017. 

Teaching 

• PGTA, 2024-2025, UCL, Institute of the Americas, History and Politics of Latin America c. 1930 to the Present (AMER0074).
• PGTA, 2025-2026, UCL, Institute of the Americas, History and Politics of Latin America c. 1930 to the Present (AMER0074).
• PGTA, 2025-2026, UCL, Department of History,  History of Latin America c.1830-c.1930 (HIST0205).

Publications

• Concha. B. (2024). Preparándose para la democracia: historia de la formación del Partido por la Democracia en el plebiscito de 1988. Historia, vol. 2, Nº57, 299-340
• Concha, B. (2023). Crear un emperador cristiano: políticas de legitimación imperial en Vita Constantini. Byzantion Nea Hellás, Nº 42, pp. 13-28
• Concha, B., Giacoman, C., & Alfaro, J. (2018). Almorzando en un banco en Santiago de Chile: Análisis de la organización y regulación social de la comensalidad institutional. Revista de Ciencias Sociales Universidad de Costa Rica, vol. III, Nº 161, pp. 77-90
• Concha, B. (2018). ¿Moriens Libertas? El concepto de libertad romana en los Annales (I-VI) y el Agricola de Cornelio Tácito. Instituto de Historia UC (Ed.), Seminario Simon Collier, pp. 43-77.

Conferences

• The “New Times” of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and the “Growth with Equality” of Ricardo Lagos: A Historical Analysis of the 1993 and 1999-2000 Chilean Presidential Elections, Society for Latin American Studies Conference (SLAS), University of Bristol, April 2025.
• Dealing with an ‘Unspeakable’ and a ‘True Friend’: British Politicians and Media Reactions to Augusto Pinochet’s Arrest in London (1998-2000), Latin American Studies Association (LASA), San Francisco, May 2025.
• The Return of the Repressed: Reactions from the Chilean Right, Centre-Left, and Left-Wing Parties to September 11 Commemorations (1990-2023), UK Latin American Historians Network (UKLAH), University of Liverpool, June 2025.

Other professional activities

• 2020-2021, Research Assistant, Alfredo Joignant (Universidad Diego Portales), “Capitalismo y legitimación de la democracia: el circuito global-local de producción de ideas a partir de la plataforma Project Syndicate”.
• 2019-2020, Research Assistant, Camilo Trumper (State University of New York at Buffalo), “Dictatorship’s Children: Education, Repression and Protest Among Youth in Chile.”
• 2018-2019, Research Assistant, Vincent Bevins, “The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World.” Public Affairs, 2020.
• 2018, Research Assistant, Catalina Balmaceda (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), La dinastía de Constantino y su impacto en la cristiandad”.
• 2018, Research Assistant, María Rosaria Stabili (Università degli Studi Roma Tre), Programa “Punto Cuatro en Chile: el convenio entre la Escuela de Economía y Administración de la PUC y la Universidad de Chicago”.
• 2017, Research Assistant, Catalina Balmaceda (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), “Libertas y Res Publica: una nueva aproximación a la República Romana”.

Public Engagement

• Co-host, “Humanities at the Pub” Podcast, The London Arts & Humanities Partnership.
• Organising Committee Member for the Latin American Research Community (LARC) based at the UCL Institute of the Americas.
• Convenor Latin American History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research.

Email: benjamin.concha.23@ucl.ac.uk
Twitter: Benja_Concha_G
RPS Profile
 

Qualifications

• MA History, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2022. 
• BA History, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2018.
• BA Sociology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2016.