Kansas State University

ADVANCE Distinguished Lecture Series presents Javier Corrales

Submitted by Alissandra Stoyan

The ADVANCE Distinguished Lecture Series and Alissandra Stoyan, assistant professor of political science, will host Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor and chair of political science at Amherst College, at 3 p.m. Oct. 17 in 301 Calvin Hall. His research talk is titled, "Why Populism is the Sugar Salt Fat in our Politics, with examples from Venezuela."

Corrales obtained his doctorate in political science from Harvard University in 1996. His research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, democratic backsliding, the political economy of development, ruling parties, the incumbent's advantage, foreign policies, and sexuality. He has published extensively on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Oxford University Press published Corrales' latest book in 2018, "Fixing Democracy: Why Constitutional Change Often Fails to Enhance Democracy in Latin America." He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of five additional books. His research has also appeared in academic journals such as Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, World Development, Political Science Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, World Policy Journal, Latin American Politics and Society, Journal of Democracy, Latin American Research Review, Studies in Comparative International Studies, Current History and Foreign Policy. He writes periodically for the New York Times.

Additionally, Corrales serves on the editorial board of Latin American Politics and Society, Political Science Quarterly, the European Review of Latin America and the Caribbean, and Americas Quarterly.

He was president of the New England Council of Latin American Studies and Program Co-Chair of the 2010 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association. In 2010, Governor Deval Patrick appointed Corrales to serve on the executive board of Mass Humanities, a grant-making organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2009, Corrales was a visiting scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard.

Corrales has taught at the University of Amsterdam, Georgetown University, the Institute of Higher Studies in Administration in Caracas, the University of the Andes in Bogotá, and at the Universidad de Salamanca. In 2016, he was a Fulbright scholar in Bogotá, and in 2005, in Caracas. In 2000, he became one of the youngest scholars ever to be selected as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He has also been a consultant for the World Bank, the United Nations, the Center for Global Development, Freedom House, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to on-going research on Venezuela's politics, Corrales is also working on three separate projects: Incumbents, Ex-presidents, and Newcomers; variations in the performance of national oil companies; and the factors helping to expand LGBT rights in Latin America.