Anna Maria Zühlke O'Connor Del Fiorentino

'Dream'—the most recurrent word used by my study participants to describe their generational longing for higher education. Selfie at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Art Café.

Ready to race at the Clare Novices' Regatta annual 800m race with Murray Edwards College Boat Club (MECBC). - 26 November, 2022

Me in Yorkshire with a kestrel—showing my love for wildlife, for Yorkshire, and Ken Loach's film Kes. - 12 April, 2023

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Anna, trained as an economist at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), holds a master's degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, supported by the Vice-Chancellor and Murray Edwards Scholarship through Cambridge Trust.

After a successful corporate career in telecom and banking, followed by a period as a full-time mother, Anna returned to academia to explore generational inequalities among first-generation university women students. Her research, rooted in the lived experiences of mothers and daughters in Brazil and England, investigates the sense of belonging of women from under-represented backgrounds at public universities. Anna has published her work in both Brazil (2021) and the UK (2023).