Seminars and Symposia

Bildner Center 25th Anniversary Celebration

- Speaker Biographies -

 

John Coatsworth

Acting Dean, School of International and Public Affairs

Professor of International and Public Affairs and of History, Columbia University

John Coatsworth is the author or editor of seven books and many scholarly articles on Latin American economic and international history. He is a former president of the American Historical Association. At Harvard, he served as the founding director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies from its creation in 1994 until 2006. He also chaired the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the Tinker Foundation, and numerous professional associations. He was elected in 2007 as Vice President (president-elect) of the Latin American Studies Association.

Professor Coatsworth received his BA degree in History from Wesleyan University (1963) and his MA (1967) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees in Economic History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught at the University of Chicago from 1969 until he joined the Harvard faculty in 1992. His other academic posts have included visiting professorships at El Colegio de México, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the National University of Buenos Aires, the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, and the Instituto Ortega y Gassett in Madrid. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly journals including the American Historical Review, the Journal of Economic History, and the Hispanic American Historical Review and as well as social science and history journals published in Britain, Germany, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.

Professor Coatsworth was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1986, served as Senior Fulbright Lecturer three times (for appointments in Argentina and Mexico), and has received research and institutional grants from public agencies and private foundations in the United States and elsewhere. He has also acted as consultant for program design or review to numerous U.S. universities and private foundations.

Among his many books are The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America (2 vols., Cambridge University Press, 2006), edited with Victor Bulmer-Thomas and Roberto Cortes Conde, The United States and Central America: The Clients and the Colossus (New York: Twayne, 1994), Latin America and the World Economy Since 1800 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), edited with Alan M. Taylor, Culturas Encontradas: Cuba y los Estados Unidos edited with Rafael Hernandez and published jointly by the David Rockefeller Center and Cuba's Juan Marinello Center in 2001, Los origenes del atraso: Nueve ensayos de historia economica de Mexico, siglos xviii y xix (Origins of Backwardness: Nine Essays on Mexican Economic History, 18th and 19th Centuries), published in Spanish by Alianza Editorial Mexicana in 1990, Images of Mexico in the United States, co-edited with Carlos Rico, and Growth Against Development: The Economic Impact of Railroads in Porfirian Mexico (1976).

Jorge Castañeda

Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies,

New York University

Jorge Castañeda is a renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer, with an interest in Latin American politics, comparative politics and U.S.-Latin American relations. He is the former Foreign Minister of Mexico (2000-2003), and in that position he focused on diverse issues in U.S.-Mexican relations, including migration, trade, security, and narcotics control; joint diplomatic initiatives on the part of Latin American nations; and the promotion of Mexican economic and trade relations globally.

Born in Mexico City in 1953, Dr. Castañeda received undergraduate degrees from Princeton University and Universite de Paris-I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), an M.A. from Ecole Pratique de Hautes Etudes, Paris I, and his Ph.D. in the History of Economics from the University of Paris.

He has taught at Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM), Princeton and Berkeley. Dr. Castañeda was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1985-87), and was a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing Grant Recipient (1989-1991).

Among his many books are Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War (1993), The Mexican Shock (1995), Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (1997), and Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen (2000).

His most recent book is Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants (2008). "In Ex Mex, former Mexican foreign minister and well-known scholar Jorge G. Castañeda draws on his experience in both capacities to dispel some of the most widely held and mistaken ideas about the United States' largest immigrant population. Through Castañeda, we learn who the newest generation of immigrants from Mexico is, why they've chosen to live in the United States, where they work, and what they ultimately hope to achieve" (from book description). 

Dr. Castañeda is also a regular columnist for the Mexican daily Reforma, The Los Angeles Times, and Newsweek International.

Christopher Sabatini
Senior Director for Policy, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly

 

Christopher Sabatini joined AS-COA in 2005 and oversees its research and publishing programs. In this capacity he has managed working groups and published reports on the rule of law in the hemisphere and Cuba. Recently, Dr. Sabatini launched the AS/COA’s policy journal, Americas Quarterly.

From 1997 to 2005, Dr. Sabatini was the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he managed NED grant programs. From 1995 to 1997, he was a Diplomacy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, working at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for Democracy and Governance.

Christopher Sabatini has published numerous articles on Latin America, democratization, security and defense, political parties, and the effectiveness of international programs to support democratic development. His most recent work includes a forthcoming article in American interest on political movements in the Andean Region; a book chapter on citizenship and democracy in Latin America; and a book chapter on human rights and elections in post-transition Latin America titled “Advocacy, Ideology and Partisanship: Human Rights in the Electoral Arena.” He has also written op eds for U.S. and international newspapers, and has been interviewed by radio, newspaper and television on issues concerning democracy in Latin America.

Dr. Sabatini has testified before the House Sub Committee on the Western Hemisphere on the status of democracy in Latin America and before the House International Relations Committee on human rights in Cuba. Mr. Sabatini has a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia and has been an adjunct professor at American University.