EDUCATION
Ph.D. in political science with distinction, Yale University, March 1998
Dissertation: “Movements Against Markets: Economic Transition and Distributive Politics in Mexico” (James C. Scott, Chair)
M.Phil. in political science, Yale University, December 1994
B.A. in anthropology, Magna Cum Laude, Amherst College, May 1989; concentration in Spanish and Latin American studies
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Associate Professor of Politics, Pomona College, 1998-present [Chair, Department of Politics 2012-2016; Coordinator, Program in International Relations 2009-2012; Coordinator, Program in Latin American Studies 2002-2005]
Visiting Professor, Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Duke University, 2008-09
Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 1998
Lecturer, Yale University, Spring 1997
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, HONORS
John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation Award, 2013
Andrew Mellon Foundation New Directions Supplemental Grant, 2010-11
Andrew Mellon Foundation New Directions Grant, 2007-2009
Pomona College Faculty Research Fellowship, Summers 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012
American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship, 2001-02
Craddock-McVicar Award, Pomona College (with Rebecca Belletto ‘00), for research and co-teaching the seminar, “The Global Politics of Food and Agriculture”
Sawyer Research Fellowship on Globalization and Inequality, University of Pennsylvania, 1997-98
Mellon/CASBS “Contentious Politics” Research Group Fellowship, 1996-98
Guest Scholar, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California-San Diego, 1995-96
Yale/MacArthur Dissertation Year Fellowship, 1995-96
John Enders Memorial Fellowship, Summer 1995
Yale University Agrarian Studies Fellowship, 1995
Yale University Graduate Fellowship, 1991-94
Yale Center for International and Area Studies Fellowship, academic year 1994-95
Amherst College Fellowship, academic years 1994-95, 1995-96
John Woodruff Simpson Fellowship, academic year 1993-94
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for independent study abroad, 1989-90 (Year-long project completed in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica)
Ford Foundation Fellowship for honors thesis research, academic year 1988-89
PUBLICATIONS
Book
Social Movements and Economic Transition: Markets and Distributive Protest in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press
Book manuscript in progress
Under contract to the University of California Press: River Underground: The Secret Life of the Santa Ana
Monograph
Planting Trouble: The Barzón Debtors’ Movement in Mexico. La Jolla: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California-San Diego
Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
2017, “Agricultural Subsidies and the Environment,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Environmental Science, DOI 10:1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.310.
2015, “What Lies Beneath: An Eco-Historical View of High Andes Water Pollution,” Ambiente e Sociedade 18:1
2012, “Both Sides Now: Migrant Philanthopy, State Power, and the Struggle for Accountability in the Zacatecas, Mexico” in Terrence Lyons and Peter Mandaville, eds. Diasporas and Globalization: Local Politics from Afar. Hurst/Columbia Unversity Press [volume was peer-reviewed chapter by chapter].
2009, “País de Deus? New Works on Environment and Social Justice in Brazil,” Latin American Perspectives 36(6):
2008,Eyeing the Storm: New Scholarship on Bolivia,” Latin American Perspectives 35 6): 166-173
2006, “Fighting Corporate Swine.” Politics & Society 34 (3): 369 – 398
2003, “Of Legal Farce and Labor Tragedy: The Han Young Struggle in Tijuana, Mexico.” Social Science History 27 (4): 525-550
2001, “Of Free Trade and Debt Bondage.” Latin American Perspectives 28 (4): 30-51
1999, “Mobile Capital and Transborder Labor Rights Mobilization.” Politics & Society 27 (1): 139-166
Non-peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
2015, “The Organizers Who Never Gave Up: An interview with Alicia Jrapko, co-founder of the International Committee to Free the Cuban Five, NACLA Report on the Americas, online edition, January 13, 2015
2015, guest editor and lead author, “Global Water Grab in the Andes,” winter issue feature for NACLA Report on the Americas 47 (1), including the following articles: “Glacial Retreat in the Andes;”“Peru’s Media-Friendly Mining Ban Masks Toxic Inaction;” “U.N. Climate Conference Exposes Peru’s Poor Record on the Environment”
2015, “Both sides now: the rise of migrant activism and co-investment in public works in Zacatecas, Mexico,” with Fernando Robledo in Enduring Reform: Business Responses to Bottom-Up Social Change in the Americas, University of Pittsburgh Press.
2014, “Salvage and Salvation,” Counterpunch, May 13
2014, “Enough for All? Global Water in the 21st Century,” The Institute for Progressive Democracy, Conference Proceedings, special issue of Progressive Democracy Quarterly for “Water Scarcity and Solutions,” http://taipd.org/
2014, “The Elusive Quest for Water Reform in California,” The Institute for Progressive Democracy, Conference Proceedings, special issue of Progressive Democracy Quarterly for “Water Scarcity and Solutions,” http://taipd.org/
2012, “Ruins and Umbral Shadows,” CounterPunch, September 3, 2012
2011, “After the Gold Rush in Peru,” The Los Angeles Times, August 7 (Sunday), p. A25
With Paul Baker, 2009. “Carbon Cap and Trade: How Wall Street Will Game the Regs and Trash the Planet,” CounterPunch, April 15, 2009
2008, “From Visibility to Voice: The Emerging Power of Migrants in Mexican Politics.” Global Migration and Transnational Politics, Working Paper No. 4, George Mason University
2007, “Gonzales is a Disgrace, Not a Speaker,” The Student Life, November 16
With Miguel Tinker-Salas, 2005. “The Poor, the Kleptocrats and Disasters: Mexico 1985-New Orleans 2005,” CounterPunch, September 16.
2005, “Hollywood Does Enron: ‘The Smartest Guys in the Room,’ CounterPunch, weekend edition, May 7/8.
2004, “McMissing the Point: Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Supersize Me’ Crashes on Message,” CounterPunch, July 16
2004, “Gringo, We’re Going Home: Latin American Troops Flee Iraq,” CounterPunch, weekend edition, May 1/3, 2004
2004, “Why France Joined the U.S. in Haiti,” CounterPunch, print edition 11 (4), February 16-23
2004, with Karl LaRaque. “Marines Retake Haiti: The U.S. Coup Continues,” CounterPunch, March 3
2004, “Haiti As Target Practice: How the U.S. Media Missed the Story,” CounterPunch, March 1
2004, “Neoliberalism, Social Programs, and Social Movements in Mexico,” in John Herrick, Paul Stuart, John Graham, Enrique Ochoa, Ruth Britton, eds. The Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
2003, “The Barzón Movement,” in Gilbert Joseph and Timothy Henderson, eds., The Mexico Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 670-683
2002, “Lessons from the Labor Front,” in David Brooks and Jonathan Fox, eds. Cross-Border Dialogues: U.S.-Mexico Social Movement Networking. La Jolla: Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies. Published in Spanish as “Lecciones y aprendizajes del frente laboral,” Chicano/Latino Research Center Working Paper No. 31, University of California at Santa Cruz
2002, Biographical note on Sidney Tarrow, in American Political Scientists: A Dictionary, edited by Charles Lockwood, Greenwood Press, pp. 387-389
Investigative Report
2001, (With delegation members) “Pre-electoral Conditions in Mexico 2000,” San Francisco: Global Exchange
Book reviews
2007 Review of Power From Experience: Urban Popular Movements in Late Twentieth-Century Mexico, by Paul Lawrence Haber, in Perspectives on Politics 5(2): 388-389.
2006, Review of Impasse in Bolivia: Neoliberal Hegemony and Popular Resistance, by Benjamin Kohl and Linda Farthing, CounterPunch, June 30.
2005, Review of Free Market Democracy and the Chilean and Mexican Countryside, by Marcus J. Kurtz, in Perspectives on Politics.
2005, Review of State Repression and the Labors of Memory, by Elizabeth Jelin, in Critical Sociology.
2004, Review of How Israel Lost: The Four Questions, by Richard Ben Cramer, in CounterPunch, August 1-15
2003, Review of NAFTA Stories: Fears and Hopes in Mexico and the United States, by Ann Kingsolver, in American Anthropologist, Fall 2003
2002, Review of Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions, and Market Reforms in Latin America, by Maria Victoria Murillo, in the American Political Science Review 96 (2): 450-451
1999, Review of The Transformation of Rural Mexico, ed. Wayne Cornelius and David Myhre, La Jolla: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California-San Diego 1998, in the Hispanic American Historical Review 36 (4): 559-561
APPLIED SCHOLARSHIP AND FIELD OPERATIONS
Establishment of Red Suma Quta (“Beautiful Lake Network”). This civic watershed defense network focuses on clean-up and conservation of aquatic commons in the Lake Titicaca basin in Puno, Peru. The network stresses public-private partnerships in the achievement of clean water-related goals and includes 71 lake monitors certified in protocols established by the nonprofit organization Global Water Watch. Monitors are trained in physical-chemical, bacteriological, and biological water monitoring methods. These monitors, all from Puno, Peru gather water quality data monthly at approximately 24 stations in western basin of Lake Titicaca.. Members of the Suma Quta network adhere to a basic four-fold design of consultación-investigación-concientización-remediación (“listening,” “researching,” “informing/raising awareness,”remediating”) in which volunteers discuss with communities water-related problems that affect them, co-design means of gathering and analyzing data on these problems with the communities, inform citizens of their findings, and then work with them to identify options for remediation of water quality problems. Cleanups to date include the capping of four leaking legacy petroleum rigs in the north lake district of Pusi and the cleanup and setback of a principal drinking water spring in the west lake district of Parina.
Arsenic remediation project, Lake Titicaca Basin. Arsenic exposure is recognized by the World Health Organization and agencies such as the U.S. EPA as a significant threat to human health. Long-term exposure to arsenic via drinking-water causes cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, and kidney, as well as other skin changes such as pigmentation changes and thickening (hyperkeratosis). The problem of arsenic in drinking water is not unique to Peru, but it is relatively understudied. Well tests undertaken with Peruvian colleague Javier Bojorquez indicate that as many as 30 percent of wells in the area may have unsafe levels of arsenic, with some ranging as high as 500 parts per billion. The World Health Organization’s maximum contaminant level for human consumption is 10 parts per billion.This project aims to enable rural families located in these arsenic “hot spots” in Puno to acquire a simple arsenic filtration device for water used for cooking or drinking. In June 2011, a group of volunteers from the Chijnaya Foundation, the Puno-based nonprofit Suma Marka, the University of California-Berkeley Chapter of Engineers without Borders, and Regional Health Directorate (better known by its Spanish acronym, DIRESA) constructed the first pilot filters for this effort utilizing porous iron scraps from machine shops in Puno, wood charcoal, washed sand, polyester fiber, and bits of brick. The filters were installed in June and July in health posts in two localities with elevated arsenic, with the goal of field-testing the filters and taking monthly data on arsenic removal rates and filtration flows.
Environmental clinic and open space assessment for the Santa Ana River Initiative. Funded by Pomona College, the Inland Empire Waterkeeper, the Orange County Coastkeepers, and the John Randloph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundationhis this twelve-month study will examine the politics of creating open space and river access on the main stem of the Santa Ana River. The research will contribute to a book on the Santa Ana River and a policy brief for the Santa Ana River Initiative, a nascent public-private partnership headed by the Inland Empire Waterkeeper and the Santa Ana River Trust. The initiative aims to enhance water quality and increase public access in the middle reach of the river above the Prado Dam where the river runs through the cities of Colton, Rialto, Riverside, Jurupa, and Norco.