At Tulane University, you have a unique opportunity to specialize in the social sciences with an area focus on Latin America. Tulane is a Research 1 University with a high concentration of Latin American specialists. The possibility of combining academic strength and engaged learning gives our program a special flavor. The Stone Center offers highly competitive tuition-waivers and stipend support for highly qualified students pursuing M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Latin American Studies. Students in our social science track are active participants in the intellectual life of Tulane’s Center for Inter-American Policy and Research, which includes a residential community of five post-doctoral fellows, faculty fellows, and visiting scholars who participate in a rich series of lectures, workshops, seminars, and inter-hemispheric initiatives devoted to the production and dissemination of academic research and knowledge about critical policy issues facing the Americas. As a graduate student you will have many opportunities to participate actively in weekly seminars, research projects, and fieldwork activities, as you immerse yourself in an intense academic life led by a community of scholars who are doing cutting-edge research on Latin America not only in political science, sociology, and economics, but also in anthropology, communication, history, and public health.
Our areas of specialization are broad and diverse, and all our Latin Americanist social scientists share a common commitment to rigorous research that is socially engaged, policy-relevant, high-impact. Our faculty are experts in fields as broad as economic development, political economy, comparative politics, social movements, poverty and inequality, environmental justice, and religion. As a graduate student, you can study the electoral consequences of indigenous protests against mining in the Andes based on in-depth interviews, combine archival and social network analysis to trace the routes of Chinese investment in Central America, or statistically estimate cross-country differences in the incidence of government transfer on income inequality. Likewise, you can learn how to perform a quantitative analysis of the impact of financialization on poverty reduction across the region, conduct ethnographic research on how racial and gender identities shape resistance against GMO crops in rural Argentina, develop a comparative framework to understand uneven responses to market reforms in different countries, or investigate the religious conversion processes among victims of crime and violence in contemporary Venezuela through a mixed-method design.
Moises Arce, Ph.D., New Mexico. Professor of Political Science and Scott and Marjorie Cowen Chair in Latin American Social Science. Political Economy, Market Reform and Resource Extraction, Peru.
Mary Clark, Ph.D., Wisconsin. Associate Professor of Political Science. Health policy in Central America and the United States.
Martin Dimitrov, Ph.D., Stanford. Associate Professor of Political Science. Cuba, Asia, Post-Communist Regimes.
John Edwards, Ph.D., Maryland. Associate Professor of Economics. Labor, Education.
Patrick Egan, Ph.D., North Carolina. Assistant Professor of Political Science. International Political Economy, Latin American and European Politics, International Relations.
Ludovico Feoli, Ph.D., Tulane. Research Professor of Latin American Studies, Permanent Researcher and CEO, CIAPA, and Executive Director of the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research. Latin American Political Economy, State Building.
Amalia Leguizamón, Ph.D., The Graduate Center, CUNY. Assistant Professor of Sociology. Development and Environmental Sociology, Argentina.
Camilo Arturo Leslie, Ph.D., Michigan. Assistant Professor of Sociology. Sociology of Law, Economic Sociology, Venezuela.
Nora Lustig, Ph.D., UC Berkeley. Professor and Samuel Z. Stone Chair in Latin American Economics. Development Economics, Poverty and Income Distribution, Social Policies and Protection, Globalization, Mexico.
Virginia Oliveros, Ph.D., Columbia. Assistant Professor. Political Economy, Comparative Politics, Argentina.
Felix K. Rioja, Ph.D., Arizona. Associate Professor of Economics and Scott and Marjorie Cowen Chair in Latin American Social Science. Macroeconomics, Latin American Development Economics.
G. Eduardo Silva, Ph.D., UC San Diego. Professor of Political Science and Lydian Chair of Political Science. Latin American Politics, Environmental Politics, Sustainable Development.
David Allen Smilde, Ph.D., Chicago. Professor of Sociology and Charles A. and Leo M. Favrot Professor of Human Relations. Sociology of Religion, Venezuela.
Raymond Taras, Ph.D., Warsaw. Professor of Political Science. Comparative Communism, Eastern European Relations with Latin America.
