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MIAMI, Fla. (Aug. 14, 2003) – Florida International University officials
announced today that International Relations Professor Damian Fernandez will
serve as new Director of the nationally recognized Cuban Research Institute,
continuing the work started by Sociology Professor Lisandro Perez, who led CRI
since its founding it in 1991. Perez has been tapped to lead a new International
Migration Initiative, which will coordinate different research initiatives.
“Dr. Fernandez and Dr. Perez are among the leading thinkers in their fields,” said
FIU Provost Mark Rosenberg. “FIU is lucky to have them lead these critical
initiatives, which will undoubtedly make significant contributions.”
Fernandez, an accomplished researcher
and author on matters related to Cuba, will lead a team of approximately
30 faculty members currently doing work
on Cuba. The center is part of the Latin American and Caribbean Center,
one of
the country’s leading think tanks on the region.
“Cuban studies at FIU are in a privileged position,” Fernandez said. “We
have the faculty depth of no other institution and we are the center of gravity
of Cuban studies in the United States, if not internationally.”
In addition to dozens of academic
papers on Cuba, Fernandez wrote Cuba and the Politics of Passion,
an analysis into the psychological and cultural
forces that
shape politics both in Miami and the island.
One of Fernandez’s goals as incoming CRI director is to strengthen the
course offerings that relate to Cuba, so FIU students and the community can benefit
directly from the center’s cutting edge research. Also, the
Institute will study the evolution of Little Havana, both physically
and socially.
Under Perez’s leadership the CRI earned the respect of academics all over
the country and secured many prestigious grants such as the Ford, MacArthur,
and Rockefeller foundations. Through his efforts, dozens of FIU faculty and students
have been able to carry out research in Cuba, and there has been a robust exchange
of leading academics between FIU and Cuba.
“I enjoyed the challenge of establishing and leading a center as dynamic
as CRI, said Perez, “and I look forward to leaving it in the capable hands
of Damian.”
Perez, whose research interest is
migration issues, was tapped by Provost Rosenberg to spear head
a new effort in migration
studies and bring
together the work
already being done in this area.
As part of the Center for Transnational
and Comparative Studies, Perez will be working with universities
in Europe to analyze
immigration patterns. Perez’s
new project will be underwritten through a highly competitive
National Resource Center grant awarded by the US Department of
Education to the TCS.
For the first time in its long history,
Perez said, modern Europe is receiving large waves of immigration,
a phenomenon that has
been occurring
for hundreds
of years in the United States and the rest of the Americas. Because
of this long experience, Perez believes the research done at
FIU could contribute
greatly to help those countries understand and develop strategies
for the new set of
problems that are cropping up.
“
What Europe is going through is what the U.S. went through years ago,” said
Perez. “These are countries used to emigration and now they’re facing
immigration.”.
“
Dr. Pérez’ extensive fund raising and program development experience
will be a major asset in the further coordination of all migration research efforts
at FIU,” said Rosenberg.
Short bios of Fernandez and Perez
are available at
http://lacc.fiu.edu/cri/experts.htm#Lisandro%20Pérez
and
http://www.fiu.edu/~intlrel/inrfaculty/fernandez.html
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