William C. Smith, Ph.D.

(Stanford University)

Professor

• View CV
• bsmith@miami.edu
• 305-284-5092

Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University. He teaches upper division and graduate seminars on the Comparative Politics of Latin America and graduate seminars on theories and methods in Comparative Politics. His primary research interests focus on Latin American politics (with a particular interest in Argentina and Brazil) and the study of transnational social movements and the political economy of globalization and market reforms. Dr. Smith frequently leads study abroad courses to Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay.

Professor Smith’s research in Latin American politics has received support from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), The Fulbright program, The Ford Foundation, the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico CNPq) in Brazil, and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO-Argentina), among other sources. He has held teaching and research posts in Brazil at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the Instituto de Relações Internacionais at the Universidade Pontifícia Católica, in Argentina at the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES) and the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, and the Center for Latin American Studies and the University of Florida.

Dr. Smith is the author of Authoritarianism and the Crisis of the Argentine Political Economy (Stanford University Press, 1991) and is the editor of numerous edited volumes, including:

• Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform (1994)
• Democracy, Markets and Structural Reform in Latin America (1994)
• El Cono Sur y las transformaciones globales (1994)
• Security, Democracy, and Development in U.S.-Latin American Relations (1995)
• Venezuelan Democracy under Pressure (1995)
• Latin America in the World-Economy (1996)
• Politics, Social Change, and Economic Restructuring in Latin America (1997)
• Latin American Democratic Transformations: Institutions, Actors, and Processes (2009)

His scholarly articles have been published in Studies in Comparative International Development, Revista Mexicana de Sociología, Dados - Revista de Ciências Sociais, Desarrollo Económico, América Latina Hoy, Nova Economia, Nueva Sociedad, Fuerzas Armadas y Sociedad, Political Power and Social Theory, and the Latin American Research Review.

Dr. Smith is the Editor of Latin American Politics and Society

Courses taught:

Undergraduate Courses

• Latin American Politics and Society — The Global Connections

Upper Division and Graduate Seminars

• Latin American Comparative Politics
• Latin American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective
• When the Romance Ends: The Left and Social Movement Responses to Democratic Discontent in Contemporary Latin America
• Politics, Ideology and Social Forces in Latin America
• Transnational Activism, Social Movements & the Emergence of Global Civil Society
• Global Political Economy: States, Markets & Globalization

Graduate Seminars

• Doctoral Dissertation Workshop
• Theories of Comparative Politics
• Comparative Politics: Major Themes and Topics

Study Abroad Courses

• The New Politics of Globalization: Democratization and Civil Society Activism in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay
• The Dilemmas of Mexican Democracy & the Dynamics of US-Mexican Relations
• Brazil in Transition: Social Transformations & Democratic Politics
• Politics, Society, and Economy in Argentina