Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellows - Fall 2004

Luiz Alberto Gómez de Souza

Luiz Alberto is a Brazilian sociologist who will contribute his broad experience in academia and the public sector to the Kellogg Institute's research on the role of religion in Latin America. He will undertake a project tracing the Catholic Church and its evolving relationship with society over the past four decades.

Luiz Alberto earmed his PhD in sociology from the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. His academic activities include the publication of books and numerous articles, as well as teaching in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. His extensive work for governmental organizations and research centers includes Brazil's Ministry of Education during the 1960s and his current term as executive director of the Center of Religious Statistics and Social Concerns in Rio de Janeiro. He is considered a leading member of the Latin American Catholic intellectual community.

Mala Htun

Htun's research will ask a question with important implications for social justice and human rights in Latin American democracies. She will compare how various nations have responded differently to claims for political representation by women, by ethnic groups and by racial minorities. The fact is, many Latin American countries have enacted gender quotas requiring a minimum of women's participation in politics, but they have not responded similarly for ethnic or racial categories.

Htun's book, Sex and the State: Abortion, Divorce and the Family Under Latin American Dictatorships and Democracies, already establishes her credentials as a scholar of the gender dimensions of political and social action. She has a PhD in political science from Harvard University, and she is an assistant professor of political science at New School for Social Research in New York.

Victoria Tin-Bor Hui

Hui's research on democracy and the formation of states spans the globe from China to Europe and embraces such themes as cultural values and globalization. She earned her PhD in political science from Columbia University, although her work also touches on history and economics. Her dissertation, "Rethinking War, State Formation and System Formation: A Historical Comparison of Ancient China and Early Modern Europe," will be published as a book.

She is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her academic career, she was active in Hong Kong politics. She holds a bachelor's degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Hui will teach two political science courses this semester: "Understanding Change in International Politics" and "Politics of Globalization."

Wendy Hunter

Hunter is at work on a book examining the growth and electoral success of Brazil's Worker's Party, or PT, which surmounted financial, social and political obstacles to elect its candidate, Lula, as national president in 2002.

She earned her PhD in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation on the Brazilian military resulted in a book, Eroding Military Influence in Brazil. Hunter's later work focused on Latin American decision-making regarding social policy, such as anti-poverty programs, and she is interested in social movements and development issues. She is associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her term as Visiting Fellow will extend through the entire 2004-05 academic year.

Eduardo Posada-Carbó

What constitutes "the establishment" in Colombia? Posada-Carbó, a native Colombian who now serves as senior research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of London, plans to write a paper on this topic while at Kellogg. The answer is important, he says, because conflicting definitions have led to distortions in the country's political discourse and policy making. His probe into the power of key concepts used by political analysts and opinion leaders in Colombia also extends to other terms, such as "civil war."

Posada-Carbó, who holds a DPhil degree in modern history from the University of Oxford, previously served as senior lecturer in history at the University of London, and he has authored many books and articles.

Kurt Weyland

What drives the diffusion of policy innovations across the borders of Latin American countries? Weyland will be preparing a book on this topic based on field research in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Peru. Weyland's investigation goes to a basic question relevant to Kellogg's emphasis on normative analysis in comparative social science: How, and to what degree, is politics rational?

He is a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a PhD in political scientist from Stanford University. Weyland's books include Democracy Without Equity: Failures of Reform in Brazil, published in 1996. His term as Visiting Fellow will extend through the entire 2004-05 academic year.

In addition to those listed above, the Kellogg Institute will also host two Visiting Fellows - Cecilia Blondet and Carmen Montero - as part of a three-year Fulbright Educational Partnerships project.

Kellogg is also hosting several Guest Scholars: two visiting faculty from the University of Guadalajara, Gonzalo Aguilar and Irving Llamosas, as part of the Institute's USAID-funded TIES project; Michael Davis, Visiting Professor at Notre Dame Law School; and Mariano Torcal from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

For information on the Spring 2004 Visiting Fellows, click here.

For a list of past Visiting Fellows, click here.