As Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino/a Studies I work with many departments of the University and the Duke Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies to assure that our collection is among the world’s best and to assist students and faculty in their use of the collection. I work closely with my counterpart at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill to maintain the cooperative collection development on Latin America which began in 1940 and is the oldest cooperative agreement of its kind in the U.S.
As a scholar, my principal research interests are in 20th and 21st Century Migration Studies; Comparative History and Politics; Public History; Emergency and Disaster Studies; processes of national reconciliation and Critical Geo-Political Theory. I have written extensively on Caribbean Sea migration and, more recently, have begun comparative study on Mediterranean Sea migration.
My 1995 book, The Cuban Balseros: Voyage of Uncertainty, established the foundational demography and history of Cuban raft crisis of 1994. In 2012, I was a Contributing Editor to Cuba: People, Culture, History, a two volume set of 300 essays, edited & written by leading scholars in Cuba & the U.S. It is the first large-scale joint publishing project between Cuban & U.S. researchers. I recently published “Post D-17 and Processes of Cuban National Reconciliation.” In Eric Hershberg & William M. LeoGrande. A New Chapter in U.S.-Cuban Relations: Impacts on the Island and Beyond, 2016.
PROGRAM IN LATINO STUDIES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH