Faculty Profiles

Sonia E. Alvarez, Horwitz Professorship

Through the Leonard J. Horwitz Professorship in Latin American Politics and Studies, Sonia E. Alvarez is able to teach, write, think, and act as a catalyst for discourse about the Southern Hemisphere—an opportunity that delights her. The professorship was established by a bequest of Leonard J. Horwitz ’49 to promote study of Latin America, a region in which he served as a U.S. foreign service officer.

A Cuban-American raised in South Florida, Alvarez earned her Ph.D. from Yale University. She dates her long relationship with Brazil to her first trip there as an 18-year-old; later she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Campinas in Sao Paulo. Her research has also taken her to Chile, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Feminism in Movement, her newest book, is due out next spring; she is also co-editing an anthology of writings by Latina scholars on the “politics of translation.” Her studies lead her to consider such questions as “What are the boundaries of Latin America, do they end at the Rio Grande—or at Chicago? Holyoke? Los Angeles?” In researching a concept like alternative globalization—what role do “mild-mannered housewives in Argentina,” for instance, play in such a movement?—she seeks its human face.

Appointed the second Horwitz Professor last spring, Alvarez says the Horwitz “is an innovative model for giving to the campus. It not only funds a professorship but also provides support to the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies.” As the Center’s director, she will use the Horwitz funds for such purposes as lecture series, small conferences, and weeklong residencies of Latin American scholars.

December 23 , 2005