Vera is a post-graduate student at the University of Toronto, studying Political Economy of International Development. Her academic, experiential, and personal passions have revolved around topics of community-based development, indigenous rights and social movements, and urban and rural informal settlements and employment, especially in Latin America. Originally from Macedonia, she has also worked to promote social justice in the fields of health care, education, housing and microfinance in Thailand, Namibia, Nicaragua and Argentina. Most recently, she worked as the volunteer coordinator at a community organization in the Ciudad Oculta (the Hidden City), one of the largest slums of Buenos Aires. She hopes to contribute to academia with her research on the rise of counter-movements that oppose free market policies implemented in various South American countries, and their implications for a possible shift in the global order.