Contact
Biography
My research and publications have long specialised on modern Cuba, specifically in two areas.
a) Modern Cuban history: this has meant a special focus on political radicalism in the 1920s-50s and the roots of the post-1959 Revolution, and, on the Revolution's ideology, radicalisation and cultural development, with a wider interest in the questions of nationalism, national identity, and ideological patterns.
b) Contemporary Cuban history and politics, focussing on participation, the Party, the state, the political system and cultural politics.
I am currently collaborating with Dr Par Kumaraswami (University of Nottingham) on a project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and called 'Beyond Havana and the nation? Peripheral identities and literary culture'. It examines the relationship between, on the one hand, local culture and historical identity in rural Cuba (focussing on the eastern province of Granma), and Cuba's national culture and historical narrative, all seen within the context of a wider globalisation which is always presumed to be superseding the national.
Expertise Summary
Although I have taught across a range of subjects within modern Latin American history, my research expertise has always been concentrated on modern and contemporary Cuban political history. I was director of the Centre for Research on Cuba from 2004 to 2020, and successfully supervised 27 PhD and 5 Masters-level projects to completion, on different aspects of Cuban history, culture and society, and currently supervise four PhD projects.
Research Summary
My research and publications have long specialised on modern Cuba, specifically in two areas.
a) Modern Cuban history: this has meant a special focus on political radicalism in the 1920s-50s and the roots of the post-1959 Revolution, and, on the Revolution's ideology, radicalisation and cultural development, with a wider interest in the questions of nationalism, national identity, and ideological patterns.
b) Contemporary Cuban history and politics, focussing on participation, the Party, the political system and cultural politics.
I am currently collaborating with Dr Par Kumaraswami (University of Nottingham) on a project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and called 'Beyond Havana and the nation? Peripheral identities and literary culture'. It examines the relationship between, on the one hand, local culture and historical identity in rural Cuba (focussing on the eastern province of Granma), and Cuba's national culture and historical narrative, all seen within the context of a wider globalisation which is always presumed to be superseding the national.
I am also completing a Historical Dictionary of Cuba for Scarecrow Press.
Recent Publications
2022. Revolutionary Soulmates? Cuba's Slow Discovery of Vietnam. In: Protest in the Vietnam War Era Palgrave Macmillan. 363-389
2022. Historical Dictionary of Cuba Third. Rowman & Littlefield. (In Press.)
2020. A Short History of Revolutionary Cuba: Power, Authority and the State since 1959 Bloomsbury Academic.