Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies
The Bildner Center brings together scholars, policymakers, civil society leaders, and other stakeholders to further understand and foster policy-oriented research concerning the governance, security, and economic well-being of peoples in the Americas.
Mission
The center's mission is to create a shared community of specialists in the Americas and organizations to forward understanding of the complexities of social, economic, political, cultural, and ecological life in the Western Hemisphere.
History
Founded in 1982 with the support of businessman and philanthropist Albert Bildner, the Center has been directed by sociologist Mauricio Font since 2000.
Our Projects
The Center has several projects regarding social, political, and economic dynamics in the western hemisphere: the Brazil Project, the Cuba Project, and the Mexican Studies Group.
Projects
Our Program Areas
Our major program areas are: Transitions and Reform Processes in a Global Context, Developing Human and Social Capital, Democratic Governance and Human Security, Transnational Communities, and Global Cooperation and Regional Integration.
Areas of FocusPhoto Credits: Sebastien Paquet/Flickr, CIAT/Flickr
Upcoming Events
Featured Publications
More publications
The State and the Private Sector in Latin America
The Shift to Partnership
By Mauricio Font (former Director, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies).
This book follows ten political economic histories since the 1970s, showing how different forms of partnership have developed, flourished or declined over the time. The author's argument is supported by rich empirical material. It places partnership schemes in a broader social context and provides a deep insight into the phenomenon.
Published June 2015
Springer Link
Handbook on Cuban History, Literature, and the Arts
New Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Social Change
By Mauricio Font (former Director, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies).
This handbook explores key themes in the current debate about Cuba's contemporary cultural and historical dynamics. Leading academics bring to light significant revisions of the artistic and literary canon and the historical archive, reconsidering often neglected subjects and dynamics in historiography as well as contemporary affairs. The book includes new studies on contentious mobilization, leftist activism, and youth organizations in the prerevolutionary republic. Current analyses include the relation between the Cuban state and intellectuals; institutional legitimation processes; the formation and reconstruction of national identity discourses; and new framings of gender, race, and sexual orientation.
Published June 2014
Routledge, 2014
Reformando el modelo económico cubano
By Mauricio Font (former Director, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies).
This book focuses on Cuba’s emergent economic model within a historical framework that includes small businesses and their regulation by the state, new taxation structure, prospects for future cooperatives, Cuban exports and competitiveness in the international market, and prospects for micro-financing.
Additional Editor: Mario González-Corzo
Published January 2014