Olivia DrakeMay 13, 20135min
Q: Hannah, what are you majoring in and what are some of your research interests? A: I'm a Latin American studies major, with a concentration in Spanish. I'm really interested in exploring different avenues regarding community development, poverty alleviation, and social policies in Latin America. For my major's research requirement, I wrote a paper analyzing Ecuador's human and social development progress from 1990 to 2010. Q: What is your personal interest in Latin America? A: I grew up in Texas, where I was surrounded by Hispanic influences and debates on immigration. But I first fell in love with the culture,…

David LowMarch 6, 20123min
In his new work The Color of Citizenship (Oxford University Press), Diego Von Vacano ’93 suggests that the tradition of Latin American and Hispanic political thought which has long considered the place of mixed-race peoples throughout the Americas, is uniquely well-positioned to provide useful ways of thinking about the connections between race and citizenship. He argues that debates in the United States about multiracial identity, the possibility of a post-racial world in the aftermath of Barack Obama, and demographic changes owed to the age of mass migration will inevitably have to confront the intellectual tradition related to racial admixture that…

Olivia DrakeOctober 3, 20113min
James McGuire's recent book Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2010) was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2010 and won the 2011 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research. McGuire is professor and chair in the Department of Government and a member of the Latin American Studies Program at Wesleyan. The Stein Rokkan Prize is awarded annually by the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), and the University of Bergen (Norway), in memory of Professor Stein Rokkan, who was an eminent social scientist at the…

Eric GershonFebruary 14, 20111min
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has presented its annual award for best doctoral thesis on Mexican foreign relations to Amelia Kiddle, the Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow in Latin American Studies at Wesleyan’s Center for the Americas. Kiddle is the first winner to have completed her doctorate outside Mexico.  The prize is worth about $8,000 and includes a commitment to publish the Spanish-language version of her dissertation, “La Política del Buen Amigo: Mexican–Latin American Relations during the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, 1934-1940.” Kiddle, now in the first year of her two-year fellowship, (more…)

Olivia DrakeNovember 5, 20102min
James McGuire, professor of government, professor of Latin American studies, is the author of Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America published by Cambridge University Press, 2010. Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America finds that the public provision of basic health care and other inexpensive social services has reduced mortality rapidly even in tough economic circumstances, and that political democracy has contributed to the provision and utilization of such social services, in a wider range of ways than is sometimes recognized. These conclusions are based on case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa…

Olivia DrakeApril 6, 20102min
James McGuire, professor of government, professor of Latin American studies, is the author of the book, Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America, published by Cambridge University Press, 2010. Why do some societies fare well, and others poorly, at reducing the risk of early death? Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America examines this question and finds that the public provision of basic health care and other inexpensive social services has reduced mortality rapidly even in tough economic circumstances, and that political democracy has contributed to the provision and utilization of such social services,…