In Ecuador, she was professor of International Relations and Director General of FLACSO Ecuador for two consecutive terms.In Chile she was Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Chile'sGraduate School of International Studies and at the Graduate School of Political Science. In Sweden she was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Götteborg University's Doctoral Program in Political Science. Among other visiting professorships in the United States, she was the Hubert H. Humphrey Distinguished Chair of International Studies at Macalester College. Her earliest research focused on the Andean Region and, more recently, on the Southern Cone and the transformations of public space and citizenship in the new global . She has published ten books as author or co-author, editor/co-editor, and more than sixty chapters and articles in collective volumes and international professional journals. Her first book, was declared by her peers ‘Best Book of the Year in the Social Sciences’. An Anthology of her work was published in 2007. Her most recent book is the outcome of a major research project on the question of citizenship and public space carried out as Senior Visiting Fellow of the :es:Centro Latinoamericano de Economía Humana in Montevideo.
Awards
Among the acknowledgements to her professional contributions: In 1995 the Inter-American Dialogue invited her to join the ‘Forum of Women Leaders of the Western Hemisphere’. In August 2008, President Michele Bachelet made her the recipient of the ‘Order of Bernardo O’Higgins’ with the rank of Comendador, Chile's highest award for foreign citizens. In October 2016, her recently published trilogy was acknowledged as ‘Best Book of the Year’ by a Jury of Peers convened by the :es:Cámara_Uruguaya_del_Libro|Uruguayan Book Chamber, making her the recipient of the ‘Premio Bartolomé Hidalgo 2016’, Uruguay's premier award to national authors.
Selected published works
Memorias de Ciudadania: Avatares de una Polis
Revisiting the Polis amidst shifting sands. The places and spaces of citizenship and the public in the new global .
La Conquista del Voto: De Velasco a
Violencia en la Region Andina: El Caso de
Ecuador: La Democracia
La democracia en el Ecuador: desafíos, dilemmas y perspectivas
El lugar de la ciudadanía en los entornos de hoy : Una mirada desde américa Latina
Music
Menéndez-Carrión combines her scholarly activities with the Performing Arts. In September 2018 she performed as piano soloist in the first performance in Ecuador of George Gershwin´s Concerto in F conducted by maestro Alvaro Manzano and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional del . In November 2014 she teamed up with Japanese violinist Kazuhiro Takagi, to offer an evening of chamber music at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. The proceeds of Forever Gaia benefited two non-profit organizations ‒moreTrees and The Tohoku Youth Orchestra‒ chaired by world-acclaimed Japanese composer, conductor, performer, screen-actor and peace activist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Forever Gaia II marked her second performance at Suntory Hall, along with concertmaster Takagi. All proceeds benefited the reconstruction efforts of Architect-Humanitarian Shigeru Ban and the Voluntary Architects Network in Ecuador’s April 2016 earthquake-stricken areas. Her first composition for piano was commissioned by Argentine film-maker Lalo Gargano and is featured in ‘34’, a Japanese/Argentine independent-film production.
