Re-establishing U.S.-Cuba relations: Walking the tightrope for success

This event will be live webstreamed. To view the webstream, please visit ii.umich.edu/lacs on the day of the event.

About the panelists:

Ruth Behar, professor of anthropology and a MacArthur Fellow, can discuss how renewed ties could affect Cuba. She's bilingual English/Spanish. Behar is the editor of the pioneering anthology, Bridges to Cuba, and author of several books, including An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba and Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in between Journeys. Behar is also a native of Cuba who immigrated to the United States as a 5-year-old after the revolution. She has visited Cuba many times and has written extensively about crossing cultural borders. Behar is bilingual English/Spanish.

Silvia Pedraza, professor of Sociology and American Culture, can discuss the social and economic conditions in Cuba and the possible impact of the renewed ties with the United States on Cuban society.  Her research focuses on the exodus from Cuba over the half century of the revolution. She is the author of Political Disaffection in Cuba’s Revolution and Exodus (Cambridge University Press, 2007). She is presently working on a book comparing the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions.  She was born and raised in Cuba and immigrated to the United States at the age of 12, after the revolution. She has visited Cuba many times, seeking to understand the impact of the revolution on people's lives there and the motivation for the exodus. She has contributed to numerous articles by The New York Times, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, The Los Angeles Times, The Detroit News, among others.

Melvyn Levitsky, professor of international policy and practice at the Ford School of Public Policy, can discuss the diplomatic challenges the United States and Cuba will face in their negotiations. Levitsky was the U.S. ambassador to Brazil in 1994-98. His expertise includes politics, economics, diplomacy and drug policy.

For more details about the presenters, please visit Michigan News.

Moderator: Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, assistant professor of American Culture and History

Co-sponsored by: The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS),  Michigan News; International Policy Center, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; and Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

• Cuba