Understanding Cuba's uncertain future with FIU experts

Sebastián Arcos

Interim Director
Cuban Research Institute

Sebastián A. Arcos, M.A., is interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. Born in Havana, he joined in 1987 the Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH), the first independent Cuban human rights organization, and was part of the CCPDH team that met with the Special Group from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights that visited the island in 1988. For three consecutive years (1995, 1996, 1997), Mr. Arcos was part of the Freedom House delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. He advised the U.S. Department of State on issues concerning human rights in Cuba between 1998 and 2000.

Office: 305-348-7250
Email: arcoss@fiu.edu

Carlos Díaz-Rosillo

Research Professor, Founding Director 
Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom 

Carlos Díaz-Rosillo is a recognized expert in U.S. foreign policy and Latin American affairs, with deep insight into the political and security dynamics shaping the broader Western Hemisphere. As Founding Director of the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom, Dr. Díaz-Rosillo guides programs, research, and public discourse on U.S.-Latin America relations, democratic governance, and regional policy responses to political and economic crises. He previously served at senior levels of the U.S. government, including as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Interagency Coordination at the White House and as Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. His work bridges academic analysis and high-level policymaking, offering nuanced perspectives on Cuba’s challenges, U.S. policy options, and pathways to internal political change. 

Email: freedom@fiu.edu 

Brian Fonseca 

Director
Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Brian Fonseca joined FIU after serving as the senior research manager for socio-cultural analysis at United States Southern Command. Fonseca can address the role and importance of the Cuban military, as well as political and international relations matters related to Cuba and the region. 

Email: fonsecab@fiu.edu

Jose Gabilondo

Professor
College of Law

Prior to joining FIU Law, Gabilondo worked in the financial market regulation at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the World Bank. Gabilondo teaches tax and corporate finance. His scholarship focuses on debt markets and (separately) heterosexual subject formation in law. He is co-author of Corporate Finance: Debt, Equity, and Derivative Markets and their Intermediaries in the American Casebook Series. He has been a featured speaker at meetings of the American Society for International Law, the American Association of Law Schools, the Latin American Law and Economics Association, the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, the Georgetown University Conference on Socio-Economics, Law and Society, the American Association of University Professors, LatCrit, and the Latin American Studies Association.

Eduardo Gamarra

Professor
Politics & International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Political science professor Eduardo Gamarra has done research on the regional dynamics of Latin America, including Cuba’s role. As an expert on Bolivia and the Andean region, he has followed closely the alliances formed by the Castro brothers, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Venezuelan leaders. He has testified in front of the U.S. Congress several times and is the author of more than half a dozen books and more than 40 academic articles on Latin America. He is available for Spanish language interviews. 

Office: 305-348-1718
Email: gamarrae@fiu.edu

Juan Carlos Gomez

Clinical Professor, Director of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration Human Rights Clinic
College of Law

Gómez has been defending the rights of individuals in immigration matters for the last 20 years. During this time, he has represented persons before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the United States Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in complex immigration matters. Within the field of immigration law, he has helped thousands of individuals in situations including removal and deportation proceedings, family immigration, and the transfer of professionals and executives to the United States. Gómez counsels international and national corporations on compliance with immigration laws. 
Gómez is available for English and Spanish interviews. 

Office: 305-348-7241
Email: jcagomez@fiu.edu 

Guillermo Grenier

Professor
Global and Sociocultural Studies
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Grenier is one of the founders of the Miami school of social analysis and has authored or coauthored six books and dozens of articles on labor, migration, immigrant incorporation, and Cuban-American ideological profiles, particularly in the Greater Miami area. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and a Faculty Fellow of the University of Notre Dame's Institute of Latino Studies as well as Director of the Florida Center for Labor Research and Studies. Greneir studies the relationship between culture, institutions and ideology and their interconnectedness.

Office: 305-348-3217
Email: Guillermo.grenier@fiu.edu

Dario Moreno

Associate Professor
Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Dario Moreno conducts research on Miami politics, Florida politics, and Cuban-American politics. He has published over 20 scholarly articles, book chapters, and two books. Moreno is a nationally recognized expert on Florida and Miami politics and is often quoted in both the national and local media. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, has been a Pew Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Fulbright scholar in Costa Rica. He teaches courses on Miami politics, Cuban politics, Florida politics and urban politics.

Office:  305-348-3854
Email: morenod@fiu.edu

Daniel Pedreira

Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor
Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Daniel Pedreira is an assistant teaching professor of political science. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science, specializing in comparative politics, international relations, Latin American politics, and Cuban politics, from FIU. He also holds an M.A. in Political Science from FIU, an M.S. in Peace Operations from George Mason University, and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Miami. Professor Pedreira has published several books and articles on politics, institutions, governance, democracy, authoritarianism, and human rights in Cuba. 
Pedreira is available for English and Spanish interviews.

Office: 305-348-3291
Email: dpedreir@fiu.edu 

Andrea Jean Queeley

Associate Professor
Global and Sociocultural Studies
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs

Queeley’s research interests include Caribbean migration, Cuba, African diaspora, race, social inequality, black popular culture and anthropological fieldwork. Queeley has conducted research in eastern Cuba among people of English-speaking Caribbean descent in which she explores narratives of “jamaicano” identity and the reemergence of Anglophone Caribbean institutions during Cuba’s Special Period.

Office: 305-348-6289
Email: aqueeley@fiu.edu