UC Davis experts: Central and Latin American issues

Cities, migration, transnationalism

Michael P. Smith, professor of human and community development at UC Davis and a faculty associate of the California Studies Center at UC Berkeley, has researched and written extensively on the political economy of urbanization, racial and ethnic formation, immigration, globalization and transnationalism. During the past decade, he has been studying the impact of transnational economic, socio-cultural and political practices of people and networks that link cities and regions in California to other communities and regions across the globe. These sites for research include San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton, Napa, the Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. He is author of "Transnational Urbanism: Locating Globalization" (2001) and co-editor of "Transnationalism From Below" (1998). Smith is also editor-in-chief of Comparative Urban and Community Research, a leading journal series in urban studies. Contact: Michael P. Smith, Human and Community Development, (530) 752-2243 or (510) 644-1954, mpsmith@ucdavis.edu.

Migration

Luis Guarnizo, an associate professor of human and community development, studies the processes and effects of U.S.-bound migration of people from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and El Salvador. He has investigated the web of social networks and power structures that transcend national territorial jurisdictions. He also looks at how the countries of origin and destination try to incorporate these migrants as dual citizens and naturalized citizens, respectively. Guarnizo is co-editor of "Transnationalism From Below" (1998) and of a special issue on transnational communities of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies (1999). Contact: Luis Guarnizo, Human and Community Development, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-9805, leguarnizo@ucdavis.edu.

Human smuggling

David Kyle, an assistant professor of sociology, studies human smuggling across the world. In December, he published "Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador." He also co-edited a book with Rey Koslowski titled "Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives," which will be out in June. Building on his first book, "Global Human Smuggling" is the first scholarly book to examine the practice in various forms in multiple regions of the world, including Mexico-U.S. smuggling. Recently, Kyle participated in an experts conference on human smuggling in Bangkok at the invitation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Contact: David Kyle, Sociology, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-1582 (work), (530) 750-2882 (home), djkyle@ucdavis.edu.

ECONOMICS

Economies of Brazil, Mexico and Chile

Richard Castanias, associate professor and associate dean of academic affairs for the Graduate School of Management, is an expert in international finance and trade. He has led student study trips to Chile, Brazil and Mexico and is an authority on the economics of the countries. His research interests span many areas, including corporate financial theory; resource economics; industrial organization; economics and financing of small firms; small business bankruptcy; small business valuation; informal capital markets; economics of executive compensation and succession; financing of cooperative organizations; economics of information; and monetary economics. Castanias has published more than 20 major articles in leading academic journals and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for some 20 academic journals. Richard Castanias, Graduate School of Management, (530) 752-8064, rpcastanias@ucdavis.edu.

Trade, foreign investment and wages

Robert Feenstra, professor of economics, has written extensively on the impacts of international trade and foreign investment, including the effects of NAFTA. Of special interest are the effects of trade and investments on wages earned by workers. In both the United States and Mexico, the trend has been for the wages of higher-skilled workers to rise relative to those of less-skilled workers. This is a predictable response when companies in the United States "outsource" some of their activities to Mexico, as has occurred under NAFTA. Feenstra is editor of the Journal of International Economics, directs the Center for International Data at UC Davis, and is also the director of the International Trade and Investment program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Mass.). Contact: Robert Feenstra, Economics, (530) 752-7022, rcfeenstra@ucdavis.edu.

Indigenous peoples, economic/political development

Native American studies professor Stefano Varese is an anthropologist with an extended research background in Mexico. His research interests focus on indigenous peoples, economic and political development, indigenous transnational migration to the U.S. and California, and critical theory of cultural pluralism in Mexico and Latin America. He lived and worked in Mexico and the state of Oaxaca during 14 years as a researcher for the National Institute of Anthropology and History and as director of the Regional Unit of Popular Cultures, a branch of the Ministry of Education. Varese has been consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Comisión Mexicana de Apoyo a los Refugiados in Southeastern Mexico during the Guatemalan civil war and the crisis of Maya political refugees. In the late 1990s, under the sponsorship of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, he co-authored with UC Berkeley's professor Alain de Janvry a study on the impact of 1992 agricultural reforms on peasants and indigenous peoples of Mexico. Varese directs the Indigenous Research Center of the Americas. Contact: Stefano Varese, (fluent in Spanish) Native American Studies, (530) 752-0357 and (530) 752-3237, svarese@ucdavis.edu.

POLITICS AND HISTORY

Border issues with Mexico

UC Davis historian Miroslava Chávez-García teaches about the gamut of Chicano issues: immigration policies, U.S. border relations with Mexico, state politics, maquiladoras, people and drug smuggling, environmental problems and community activism in the Southwest. An assistant professor in the Chicana/o Studies Program, she also is well-versed in Chicano history of the 20th century, as well as colonial and 19th century California Chicano history. Contact: Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, Chicana/o Studies Program, (530) 752-1265, chavezgarcia@ucdavis.edu.

Mexican and U.S. border history

UC Davis historian Andrés Resendez can talk about Mexican history as well as the history of the U.S.-Mexico border. An assistant professor of history, Resendez is especially interested in national identities and comparative social movements. He can also discuss the intellectual history of modern Latin America, race in Latin America and women in the Mexican Revolution. Contact: Andrés Resendez, History, (530) 752-0778, aresendez@ucdavis.edu.

Latin American history

UC Davis historian Chuck Walker teaches Latin American history, history of race in Latin America, the history of inter-American relations and history of the Andean region. He is also an expert on the history of catastrophes and natural disasters, such as earthquakes, in the region. He can talk about the historical politics of Latino natural disasters as well as the history of crime and violence in the region. Contact: Chuck Walker (fluent in Spanish), History, (530) 752-3865, cfwalker@ucdavis.edu.

Society and politics in Brazil, Latin America

Historian Thomas Holloway, director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, studies the social history of Brazil. Besides the topics of crime and punishment, Holloway is versatile on a wide range of issues related to society and politics in Brazil as well as the broader politics in Latin American and inter-American affairs. He is a past president of the Latin American Studies Association. Contact: Thomas Holloway, Hemispheric Institute on the Americas and History, (530) 752-3046, thholloway@ucdavis.edu.

Ethnic property rights in Latin America

Bettina Ng'weno, assistant professor of African American and African studies, can talk about ethnic claims to property rights in Latin American countries, specifically those for people of African heritage and indigenous groups. An anthropologist, Ng'weno looks at multicultural national identities, ancestral claims to land and changing laws in Latin America, especially in Colombia. She is writing a book about the Colombian state and Afro-Colombian land claims. Contact: Bettina Ng'weno (fluent Spanish speaker), African American and African Studies, (530) 752-0877, bngweno@ucdavis.edu.

Natives and natural resources

Suzana Sawyer, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Davis, examines struggles over resources in the Ecuadorian Amazon, focusing on conflicts over land and petroleum development among indigenous peoples, the state, and multinational oil companies. She explores how lowland peoples have challenged neoliberal economic policies to privatize their lands and increase petroleum production within territory claimed by the indigenous people. In a country such as Ecuador, struggles over resources represent occasions for redefining the terms of citizenship, nation and sovereignty in a globalizing world. Sawyer is writing a book titled, "Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador." Contact: Suzana Sawyer (fluent in Spanish), Anthropology, (530) 752-2557, smsawyer@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts:

• Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu
• Pat Bailey, News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey@ucdavis.edu

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