Richard M. Balzano

Visiting Lecturer

Faculty
A headshot of Richard Balzano
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BACKGROUND

Richard M. Balzano is an historian specializing in US and Latin American History, and contemporary inter-American relations. He is the current President of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies, where he founded the MACLAS Digital Conference and Lecture Series and currently chairs its Planning and Awards Committee. His research examines U.S. foreign policy and Latin America’s Cold War human rights, foreign aid, sanctions, and international law; media, propaganda, narrative management, and the politics of information; and resource diplomacy, extractive imperialism, and the political economy of modern conflict. Richard is the author of U.S.-Guatemalan Petro-Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century: The Blackest Gold (Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2027), the first English-language book-length study of U.S.-Guatemalan hydrocarbon relations. He writes a bi-weekly column with the New Hampshire Gazette, the nation’s oldest paper, and his journalism and political commentary have appeared in numerous domestic and international outlets, including LA Progressive, Dissident Voice, Orinoco Tribune, Portside, Rebelión, Links, Venezuelanalysis, and SanctionsKill.

EDUCATION

  • PhD, University of Reading
  • MA, Western New Mexico University
  • BA, Utica College of Syracuse University

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

  • US-Guatemalan Petro-Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century: The Blackest Gold. Forthcoming via Bloomsbury Academic. 

Articles:

  • “The Reagan Administration’s Redefining of Human Rights and Rebranding of Cold War Objectives in Latin America.” Federal History. Under consideration (invited submission).
  • “Informant and Artifacts: Local Histories’ Representations of Slavery and the Precarious State of Freedom in Northeastern Vermont.” Vermont History 90, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2022): 1–23.
  • “Capital Paralysis: The Scope and Impact of Washington-Imposed Sanctions on Venezuela in the Context of International Law.” Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal (August 2020). 

Reviews:

  • Review of  “Beginning of Winter: The George H. W. Bush Administration, the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, and the Emergence of the Post–Cold War World” by James R. Stocker [Journal of Cold War Studies 26, no. 2 (Spring 2024): 26-62], H-Diplo / Jervis Forum. September 30, 2025. 

Journalism and Commentary:

CONFERENCES & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Conferences:

  • "Guatemala's Hydrocarbon Wildcard: Rethinking the Hierarchy of US National Interest in the Central American Theatre, 1980-1982." Paper accepted and scheduled for the annual conference of the New England Council of Latin American Studies (NECLAS), “Latin American and Latinx Communities Across Disciplines, Spaces, and Languages,” Panel TBD. Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA.  November 6-7, 2026.
  • “Negotiated Authority: Sovereignty, Hegemony, and the Politics of Infrastructure Development in Postwar Latin America.” Chair, Panel 59, Annual conference of the  Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. June 27, 2026. 
  • “Resurrecting Dulles: The Reagan Administration's Redefining of Human Rights and Rebranding of Cold War Objectives in Latin America.” Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Panel 56: “The Values, Virtues, and Vices of Foreign Aid: Domestic Politics and the Reimagining of U.S. Overseas Assistance, 1945–2025,” Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. June 27, 2026. 
  • “Colonial Histories and Sonic/Visual Epistemologies.” Chair, Panel XIII at the annual conference of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), “Pedagogies of Possibility: Teaching, Learning, and Decolonizing Knowledge in Turbulent Times,” Pennsylvania Western University, California, PA. March 14, 2026.
  • “Indigenous Rights and Community Resilience.” Chair, Panel XII at the annual conference of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), “Pedagogies of Possibility: Teaching, Learning, and Decolonizing Knowledge in Turbulent Times,” Pennsylvania Western University, California, PA. March 14, 2026.
  • “The Dictator Whisperer: Vernon Walters' Clandestine Diplomacy in the Americas, 1979-1984.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), “Pedagogies of Possibility: Teaching, Learning, and Decolonizing Knowledge in Turbulent Times,” Panel I: “Empire, Diplomacy, and U.S. Power in the Americas,” Pennsylvania Western University, California, PA. March 13, 2026.
  • “Emerging Perspectives in Latin American Scholarship.” Conference organizer and host, Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS) Digital Conference, Springfield College, Springfield, MA. November 11-12, 2025. 
  • “Charlie Wilson’s Other War: Backing Genocide for Oil in Guatemala.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Panel 53: “Development and the Politics of Sovereignty, Memory, and Human Rights in the Global South,” Arlington, VA.  June 27, 2025. 
  • “Charlie Wilson’s Other War: Backing Genocide for Oil in Guatemala.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), “Writing the Future: Emerging Trends in Latin American Studies,” Panel 3: “Central American Politics & Ideologies,” University of Delaware, Newark, DE. March 28, 2025.
  • “Latin American History in American Public Schools: Challenging Prospects for the Future.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), “Privilege, Power, and Pedagogy,” Panel 16: “Transgressive Pedagogies: Classroom Strategies for Social Change,” College of New Jersey, Ewing Township, NJ. March 19, 2022.
  • “Push and Pull: Guatemalan Hydrocarbon Development and U.S.-Guatemalan Relations, 1916-1983.” Paper presented at the annual conference of the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS), “Privilege, Power, and Pedagogy,” Panel 3: “Imperial Power, Indigenous Rights & Global Engagement,” College of New Jersey, Ewing Township, NJ. March 18, 2022.
  • “‘Revolution’ or Rebranding: Transitions in US Human Rights Policy During the Reagan Administration.” Paper presented at the British International Studies Association (BISA) Digital Conference Panel “Shifts in US Policy.” November 17, 2021.
  •  “Hiding in Plain Sight: Smoking Guns and Digital History.” Paper presented at the Historians of the Twentieth Century United States (HOTCUS) Digital Conference Panel“‘Smoking Guns’: Sources that Inspire and Shape our Research.” September 2, 2021.
  • “‘Fake News,’ with Writers from The Onion News Network.” Chair, panel presented at the Alternative Media Conference, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT. May 18, 2013.

Invited Speaking Engagements and Public Scholarship:

  • “Oil, Aid, and Human Rights in 20th Century Guatemala — an Interview with Richard Balzano.” Latin American History Podcast. Posted January 7, 2025. Podcast, 53:00.
  • “Slavery and the Precarious State of Freedom in Northeastern Vermont.” Invited speaking engagement at the annual meeting of the  Groton Historical Society, Groton, VT. August 24, 2024.
  • “Marketing a Human Rights 'Turnaround': Transitions in US Human Rights Discourse and the Re-branding of Reagan's Latin American Initiatives in the 1980s.” Invited speaking engagement at the Utica University Center for Historical Research, “Brown Bag Talks” Lecture Series. February 8, 2023.
  • “Slavery, Bondage, and the Precarious State of Freedom in Northeastern Vermont.” Invited speaking engagement at the Utica University Center for Historical Research, Black History Month Lecture Series. February 7, 2023.

COURSES RECENTLY TAUGHT

  • History 264 History of Health Care and Medicine in the U.S.

Research Areas

Latin American,
United States