Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor Rafael M. Hernández Rodríguez

Professor Merilee Grindle, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, announced as of September, 18th 2006 the arrival of Rafael M. Hernández Rodríguez, the 2006-2007 Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Visiting Professor in Latin American Studies. Professor Grindle welcomed Mr. Hernández, Senior Research Fellow at the Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de la Cultura Cubana 'Juan Marinello,' and noted that 'the Center is delighted to welcome Rafael M. Hernández to our faculty.  He is a scholar of international stature who will add measurably to Harvard's expertise in the history and development of Cuba."

Mr. Hernández, who is also a professor and researcher at the University of Havana, the Instituto Superior de las Relaciones Internaciónales (ISRI) 'Rael Roa García,' and the Centro de Estudios sobre America (CEA) in Cuba, will be in residence at Harvard in the Department of History during the fall 2006 semester. He is a scholar of Cuban and U.S. policies, inter-American relations, international security, migration and Cuban culture, society and politics, and is co-editor of, U.S.-Cuban Relations in the 1990s, with Jorge I. Domínguez (Westview Press, 1989) and the founding editor of TEMAS, a Cuban quarterly in the field of social sciences and the humanities. A published poet and playwright, Rafael M. Hernández was the editor and founder of Cuadernos de Nuestra America, the journal published by the Centro de Estudios sobre America, where he was director of North American studies for 18 years.

Each year, the Center invites Harvard University faculty members to nominate eminent scholars or practitioners for the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professorship in Latin American Studies. The RFK Visiting Professorship in Latin American Studies was created at Harvard University in 1986 through a generous gift from Edmond Safra and the Republic of New York Corporation. The endowment enables Harvard to regularly invite prominent Latin American scholars from any field. Professor Hernández is the second Cuban scholar to hold this appointment. In 2002, the renowned Cuban architect and urban planner, Mario Coyula Cowley, was named as an RFK professor in the Graduate School of Design.

While at Harvard, Professor Hernández will teach an undergraduate course in the History Department titled: 'Cuba: Culture and Society', History 1733 as well as a graduate course titled 'United States-Cuban Relations', History 2733 or ISP-238.  On his arrival on campus and the significance of his residency at Harvard this semester, Rafael Hernández said, 'teaching on U.S.-Cuban relations and contemporary Cuba to Harvard students, and sharing it with faculty and many old colleagues in the field of Latin American studies, will certainly be a unique learning experience.'

Harvard College Program in Cuba

Reprintedfrom The Harvard Crimson, October 2, 2006

Harvard is preparing to launch a spring-semester study-abroad program at the University of Havana, despite strict federal regulations on U.S. travel to communist Cuba and activists' concerns about academic freedom in the island-nation. The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) and the Harvard College Office of International Programs (OIP) have obtained a federal license for a joint effort with Cuba's preeminent educational institution.

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Reprintedfrom The Harvard Crimson, October 4, 2006

When the then-recently triumphant Castro, a graduate of the University of Havana, came to Harvard in April of 1959, he addressed an enraptured audience, explaining his early desire to study here. Now, Castro's alma mater will welcome Harvard students.

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