LAHS Faculty
Many of the nation's leading experts on Latin America teach at GW. The full-time Latin American Studies faculty is complemented by part-time faculty who work in the Washington policy community. A partial list of faculty at GW who teach courses related to Latin America follows.
Full time Faculty
Robert Maguire (Ph.D., McGill University). Professor of Practice of International Affairs; Director, Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program
Jeffrey P. Blomster (M.Phil. and Ph.D., Yale University). Professor of Anthropology. Concentrations: rise of complex society, ritual and religion, socio-political organization, ancient Mexico/Mesoamerica.
Christopher Britt (Ph.D., Princeton University). Assistant Professor of Spanish Language and Literature.
Yvonne Captain (Ph.D., Stanford University). Associate Professor of Spanish. Concentration: Latin American and Caribbean literature.
Reid Click (Ph.D., University of Chicago). Associate Professor of International Business and International Affairs. Concentrations: international finance; international business strategy.
Robert Cottrol (Ph.D., Yale University; J.D. Georgetown University). Professor of Law, History, and Sociology; Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law. Concentrations: law of race and slavery; criminal law; history; sociology.
Alexander Dent (Ph.D., University of Chicago). Assistant Professor of Anthropology. Concentrations: public and popular culture, language, media, rural-urban relations, ethnography, ethnomusicology; Brazil, Latin America, North America.
James Ferrer, Jr. (Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley). Associate Research Professor Director of the Center for Latin American Issues. Concentrations: business management issues in Brazil.
Graciela Kaminsky (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Professor of Economics. Concentrations: international finance, open-economy macroeconomics.
Stephen B. Kaplan (Ph.D., Yale University). Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs. Concentrations: Political economy of global markets and development; Latin American politics.
Patty Kelly (Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center). Assistant Professor of Anthropology. Concentrations: Mexico; Central America; migration; border politics.
Peter Klaren (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles). Professor of History and International Affairs. Concentration: Latin American history.
Cynthia McClintock (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Professor of Political Science and International Affairs. Concentration: Latin American politics.
Marie D. Price (Ph.D., Syracuse University). Chair of Geography Department and Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs. Concentrations: political and cultural geography of Latin America; immigration; global cities.
Fernando Robles (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University). Professor of International Marketing and International Affairs. Concentrations: international marketing; regional integration.
Stephen Smith (Ph.D., Cornell University). Professor of Economics. Concentrations: development economics; economic organization; employee-owned firms and related topics.
Isabel Vergara (Ph.D., Cornell University). Associate Professor of Spanish. Concentrations: Spanish and Latin American literature.
Barbara Von Barghahn (Ph.D., New York University). Professor of Art History. Concentrations: Spanish and Portuguese Art.
Sergio Waisman (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley). Professor of Spanish. Concentrations: nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American literature; literary theory; translation; Jorge Luis Borges.
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Adjunct And Part-Time Faculty
Paula Alonso: Professorial Lecturer
Paula Alonso completed her doctorate at Oxford University (1992). Her research specializes in Argentine political history and the history of ideas and of the press; her teaching has encompassed World History and Latin American History and Politics. She has held academic appointments at the Universities of Bristol and Warwick in the UK; the Universidad de San Andrés and Conicet in Argentina, and in the US at the Universities of Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Maryland. She was the Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (2004) and was awarded a Leverhulme Trust 3-year Research Grant (1993-1996).
Her publications include Between Revolution and the Ballot Box. The Origins of the Argentine Radical Party (Cambridge University Press, 2000) translated to Spanish; Jardines Secretos, Legitimaciones Públicas. El Partido Autonomista Nacional y la Política Argentina de Fines de Siglo XIX, (Edhasa, 2010). She edited Construcciones Impresas: Panfletos, diarios y revistas en la formación de los estados nacionales en América Latina, 1820-1920 (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2004). She has also published in the main journals in her field, including the Hispanic American Historical Review and the Journal of Latin American Studies, and contributed many chapters to edited books.
Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University). Inter-American Development Bank.
Camille Gaskin-Reyes: Professorial Lecturer
Camille Gaskin-Reyes is an urban and regional planner with extensive experience in development practice in Latin America. She joined the Elliott School after a long career at the Inter-American Development Bank, where she held a number of senior management positions, ranging from the IDB's representative in Panama to manager in charge of development effectiveness and fiduciary management. She has worked on most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in the areas of project appraisal and financing; policy development and country programming; quality of entry and of supervision of projects; risk management and the monitoring and evaluation of programs. Dr. Gaskin-Reyes completed her Ph.D at the University of Bonn in Germany, and also completed a Master's degree in non-renewable energy and alternative building methods at the Cologne Polytechnic.
Lino Gutierrez: Lecturer
Lino Gutierrez is CEO of Gutierrez Global LLC, a consulting firm specializing on strategic advice for corporations interested in investing in Latin America and Europe. A retired Foreign Service Officer, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina (2003-2006) and U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua (1996-1999). From 1999 to 2002, he was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, including a stint as Acting Assistant Secretary from 2001-2002. From 2002-2003, Gutierrez occupied the George Kennan chair as International Affairs Advisor at the National War College. Other overseas postings included tours in the Dominican Republic, Portugal, Haiti, France and the Bahamas. Ambassador Gutierrez served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez on Cuba transition and Latin America from 2007-09. Gutierrez has been the recipient of the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award, Superior Honor Award (twice) and Meritorious Honor Award (three times). He has also earned the U.S. Army's civilian award.
Kevin Healy (Ph.D., Cornell University) Program Director, Inter-American Foundation. Concentrations: development sociology; drug trafficking in the Americas, indigenous social movements in the Americas.
Jorge Hernandez-Fujigaki (Ph.D., University of Chicago). Concentrations: Mexican History ; Mexican American History.
Carlos Indacochea (Ph.D., Cornell University). Assistant Professorial Lecturer. Concentrations: development sociology, demography, theory of development.
Claudio Loser (Ph.D., University of Chicago). Senior Fellow, the Inter-American Dialogue. Concentration: economic development of Latin America.
Manuel Orozco (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin). Executive Director, Remittances and Development Program, Inter-American Dialogue. Concentrations: Latinos and minority issues; democratization, civil war, and negotiation; development assistance; international labor migration and migrant worker remittances.
Elaine Pena (Ph.D., Northwestern University). Assistant Professor of American Studies, The George Washington University. Concentrations: performance theory and pedagogy, religious studies, built environment, transnational studies.
Rubén M. Perina
Dr. Rubén M. Perina directs the Program of Support for Legislative Institutions in the Department of Modernization of the State at the Organization of American States (OAS). At the OAS, he was the Coordinator of Strategic Programs in the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy and the head of its Demining Program (1994–2000); the Chief of OAS Electoral Observation Missions in the Dominican Republic (2006), Venezuela (2005 and 2000), Guatemala (1996), Colombia (1994), Paraguay (1991–1993); and a Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the OAS (1990–1994). As an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, he taught a course on the Inter-American System.
Dr. Perina has written and published on the role of the OAS in the promotion of democracy, the role of legislatures in democratic and integration processes in the Mercosur countries; on leadership and "governability," the separation of powers and "governability," electoral systems, the role of political culture in the consolidation of democracy, and on the military and politics in Argentina. He holds a Ph. D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania (1981); is a native of Argentina and resides in Washington D.C. since 1980. Mr. Perina can be reached at RPerina@oas.org
Eric Ross (Ph.D., Columbia University). Professorial Lecturer in Anthropology and International Affairs, The George Washington University. Concentrations: environment and population issues, public health and epidemiology, and gender.
Pablo Zúñiga: Lecturer
US Lawyer and Specialist in Inter-American Political Affairs. (Juris Doctor, University of Baltimore, 1986; B.A. Economics, University
of Maryland, 1983)
For over twenty years, Mr. Zúñiga has worked for the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS). He is currently an Advisor for the Secretary for Political Affairs. Previously, he has served as Deputy Director in the Department for Effective Public Management (2009-2012), Director in the Department for State Modernization and Governance (2008-2009), and Senior Specialist in the Office and Unit for the Promotion of Democracy (1995-2008). He coordinated the Section for the Development of Public Administration, promoting democratic values and practices in governance. He has extensive experience in coordinating programs aimed at fostering a democratic culture through formal and non formal education, specifically through national and regional training programs for young political leaders. He supported the creation of the OAS Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices, and has participated in numerous Electoral Observation Missions.
Other previous assignments at the OAS include: Coordinator at headquarters of the OAS International Civilian Mission in Haiti (MICIVIH) (1993-1997); Specialist in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Management (1992-1995); and legal consultant in the Department of General Legal Services (1990-1991). He has also served as adjunct professor Trinity University in Washington, D.C.
Email: PZuniga@oas.org
