Gregory Weeks

Greg talks with Alan McPherson, Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University. He has published a ton on U.S.-Latin American relations, especially as it relates to intervention. In particular, he has a brand new book Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice. That assassination took place September 21, 1976, almost exactly 43 years ago. I highly recommend the book, which reads like a thriller.

Greg talks with Arturo Lopez-Levy, who is Visiting Assistant Professor of international Relations at Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota. He has a Ph.D. in international Studies from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies of the University of Denver. He has published articles about Cuba, Latin America, and the U.S. policy towards Latin America. They talk about U.S. policy Cuba, based on an article he recently published in NACLA. It ranged from Trump administration goals to reaction in Cuba, to what economic consequences we might see as a result of U.S. policy.

Greg talks with Tim Gill, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UNC Wilmington. He has published on an array of topics largely involving U.S. global power, Venezuelan politics and human rights, and sociological theory. His work has been published in several academic outlets, including Sociological Forum, Journal of World-Systems Research, Social Currents, The American Sociologist, and Third World Quarterly.

We last talked in Episode 10, which was November 2016 after Trump’s election. Times have changed.

For our discussion, he also co-authored an article with Rebecca Hanson about U.S. policy toward Venezuela in The Nation (click here for the link) and people are all up in arms. Specifically, it is about the U.S. government’s relationship with Juan Guaidó. It generated some heat so we discuss the argument, the responses to it, and where Venezuela may be heading now.

Greg talks about the Salvadoran presidential election with Christine Wade, Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Washington College. We talk about why Nayib Bukele won, the problems with the two dominant parties, the role of ideology, and much more. We end on a more optimistic note than normal!

Greg talks with Rebecca Hanson, who is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida and affiliated with the Center for Latin American Studies. Her current book project Citizen (In)Security, Policing, and Violent Pluralism in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution uses 27 months of ethnographic, interview, and survey data conducted in Venezuela to explain why key tenets of democratic police reform do not make sense to many on the ground, and how these reforms can entrench support for the beliefs and practices that reformers set out to change.

She also is the author of a recent article co-authored with Tim Gill (way back in episode 10) in NACLA providing context for the Venezuelan crisis. We discuss how the crisis is unfolding, recognizing that everything might change not long after we talk.

Link to their article: https://nacla.org/news/2019/01/24/venezuela-another-crossroads

Greg talks with Jonathan Rosen, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Holy Family University. He does research on drug trafficking and also gangs in Latin America, especially Central America. Notably, he’s gone into prisons in El Salvador to do interviews. We discuss his new article, ““Rethinking the Mechanisms of Gang Desistance in a Developing Country,” which is based on a survey of nearly 1,200 gang members and 24 in depth interviews.

Here is the link to the article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01639625.2018.1519130

If you do not have access to that journal, I encourage you to contact Jonathan directly, as he can give you the PDF. His info is here: https://holyfamily.academia.edu/JonathanRosen/CurriculumVitae

In the episode I mention my Open Access textbook Understanding Latin American Politics. You can find it here: https://omp.uncc.edu/library/catalog/book/7

Greg talks with Luis Schenoni, who is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at Notre Dame University. His research focuses on the interaction of domestic and international politics in Latin America. They discuss his work on Latin American foreign policy change and U.S.-Latin American relations, and how he uses different methods to analyze them.

In the episode I mention my Open Access textbook Understanding Latin American Politics. You can find it here: https://omp.uncc.edu/library/catalog/book/7

Greg takes a look at the argument that Democrats will recreate the Venezuelan economic crisis in the United States. It is not a good argument, but it raises interesting questions about what exactly got Venezuela to where it is today.

In the episode I mention my Open Access textbook. You can find it here: https://omp.uncc.edu/library/catalog/book/7

Greg talks with Michelle Dion, who is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at McMaster University. Her research interests include three broad themes: the political economy of social policy in Latin America; sexuality, attitudes, and policy; and diversity, methodology, and the profession of political science. She just published a co-authored article in Latin American Research Review on “New Media and Support for Same-Sex Marriage,” which we discuss. You can access that Open Access article for free here.

Production note: apologies about the recording, as you hear us speaking in one of your ears/speakers.

And remember the podcast is now available on Spotify.

Greg talks with John Hyatt, a former student who is an international business development professional, having spent the last 10 years in Mexico City assisting international firms with their market development projects in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. The topic is Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Mexican business (at least in Mexico City). What has been their reaction been? How does Donald Trump fit into this?