| Welcome |
I'm a Political Science professor at DePaul University. My fields of specialization are comparative politics and international political economy, and my work focuses mainly on Mexico and Central America. I got my degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978. Back then, I was one of the few women in the program and the only one in my cohort who stuck it out. I had the pleasure of working with three fine Latin Americanists in that department-Federico Gil, Enrique Baloyra, and John Martz.
My work in Latin America began in Mexico with a dissertation on the origins and expansion of Mexican social welfare policy. While completing that research, I got interested in understanding the possibilities for expansion of basic health services into the Mexican countryside. This theme drew me more fully to rural development issues, which I began studying comparatively in Mexico and revolutionary Nicaragua. As the U.S. contra war against the Sandinista government deepened through the 1980's and good empirical study of the Nicaraguan Revolution became more urgent, I shifted my research fully to Nicaragua. I spent almost fifteen years grappling with the complexities of Nicaragua's ever-fascinating and ever-changing politics. At the end of the 1990s, I was drawn back to Mexico by the country's growing electoral competition and quickening process of political change, and I spent several years working on political transitions in southern and southeastern Mexico. My current research attempts to bridge these interests by focusing on the intersection of democratization and market reform in the Mesoamerican region. This work includes analysis of the possibilities for and limits to civil society participation in the crafting of structural economic reforms. In the last few years, I’ve been studying the policy-making process of Plan Puebla-Panamá, an international development initiative that links southern Mexico and Central America, and the negotiation/ratification debates for the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement.
My first academic position was at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, a location that appealed to me because of its proximity to Mexico. When I moved to DePaul in 1980, I knew I would flourish there--in a department full of colleagues who were pushing at boundaries, a university that was open to innovation, and with unpretentious, no-nonsense students who wanted to learn. At DePaul I've had the opportunity to direct the Latin American and Latino Studies Program and the Study Abroad Program, and helped develop the International Studies Program, the Center for Latino Research, and the Honors Program. I have served as both chair (2000-2003) and assistant chair (currently) of the Political Science Department.
During my years in Chicago, I married my graduate school sweetheart, and we had two wonderful daughters, Claire and Grace. That's my story!
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| Research |
Much of my published research has focused on the political economy of revolutionary and post-revolutionary transition in Central America during the 1980s-1990s. My work highlights the critical role of economic elites in negotiating and constraining political reform and the challenges of pursuing peace and democracy in the context of poverty and economic polarization.
Selected Publications
"From Low-Intensity War to Low-Intensity Peace: The Nicaraguan Peace Process," In Cynthia J. Arnson, ed., Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America (Washington D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999): 31-64. |
"Revolution and the Hyperpoliticized Business Peak Association: Nicaragua and El Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada," In Francisco Durand and Eduardo Silva, eds., Organized Business, Economic Change, and Democracy in Latin America (Miami: North-South Center Press, 1998): 147-182. |
"Economic Elite." In Thomas W. Walker, ed. Nicaragua: Politics Without Illusions (Scholarly Resources, 1997): 249-64. |
"Nicaragua: Politics, Poverty and Polarization." In Jorge I. Domínguez and Abraham F. Lowenthal, eds., Constructing Democratic Governance: Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1990s (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996): 3-25. |
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Capitalists and Revolution in Nicaragua: Opposition and Accommodation, 1979-1993. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. |
"Capitalists and Revolution: A Comparative Analysis." Working Paper Series, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994. |
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The Political Economy of Revolutionary Nicaragua. Rose J. Spalding, ed. Boston, MA: Allen and Unwin, 1987. Also published in Spanish as La economía política de la Nicaragua revolucionaria. Rose J. Spalding, ed. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1989. |
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"The Mexican Food Crisis: An Analysis of the Sistema Alimentario Mexicano." Working Papers in U.S. - Mexican Studies. La Jolla, CA: Program in U.S.?Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1984. |
"Expansión económica del Estado en Nicaragua revolucionaria." Foro Internacional, #97 (Julio-Septiembre 1984): 14-32. |
"México en los 80: internacionalización económica, tecnificación del Estado y relegitimación." In Enrique Baloyra and Rafael López Pintor, eds., Iberoamérica en los años 80. Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (1982): 131-148. |
"State Power and Its Limits: Corporatism in Mexico." Comparative Political Studies, 14 #2 (July 1981): 130-161. |
"Welfare Policy Making: Theoretical Implications of a Mexican Case Study." Comparative Politics, 12 #14 (July 1980): 419-438. |
Recent Scholarly Papers
"CAFTA Politics: Civil Society Participation in Central American Free Trade Negotiations," Paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Meeting, Chicago, Il, April 7-11, 2005.
"The Anti-CAFTA Movement in El Salvador: 'Constrained' vs. 'Transgressive' Civil Society," Paper presented at the XXV International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 7-9, 2004.
"Civil Society Consultation by the Inter-American Development Bank: Stakeholder Participation in Central American Regional Development Projects," Paper to be presented at the 2004 Midwest Political Science Association Meeting, Chicago, Il, April 15-18, 2004.
"International Financial Institutions and Civil Society Consultations: An Assessment of Popular Participation in Plan Puebla-Panamá," Paper presented at the XXIV International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Dallas, Texas, March 27-30, 2003.
"Early Social Policy Initiatives in the Fox Administration," Paper presented at the XXIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Washington, D.C., September 6-8, 2001.
"Opposition, Social Policy and Sub-national Politics in Mexico: The 2000 Elections in Yucatán," Paper presented at the 59th Annual National Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 19-22, 2001.
"Opposition Politics, Party Pluralism, and Electoral Democracy in Yucatán," Paper presented at the XXII International Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Miami, Florida, March 16-18, 2000.
"Party Politics in Yucatán: Regional Political Strategy in Mexico," Paper presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Il., April 15-17, 1999.
"Political Parties in Yucatán: Regionalism, Strategy and Prospects for the PRI," Paper presented at the XXI International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, Il, September 24-26, 1998. |
