Walt Vanderbush

Walt Vanderbush teaches classes in Latin American and Latino studies on the topics of US-Latin American relations, Latinos in the United States, and Latin American politics. Walt writes in the areas of US-Latin American relations and Latin American political economy. His current research is on the Caribbean with a focus on regional resistance to external pressures.

Teaching

Professor Vanderbush teaches courses on US-Latin American Relations, Latin American Politics, and Latina/os in the United States. He has also taken students on study abroad to Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico.

Research

Walt's original research was on Mexican political economy, including articles on Mexican labor unions and other popular organizing. He moved next to a focus on US-Latin American Relations, particularly US-Cuba policy. With co-author Pat Haney, he published several articles and book chapters on Cuba policy, as well as the 2005 book, The Cuban Embargo: Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy.

Since then, Walt's work has been on US-Latin American Relations more generally with articles in journals such as New Political Science, Foreign Policy Analysis, and New Politics. He has also contributed chapters to the book, Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government: Convergence and Divergence in Making Foreign Policy (2014); and The Ecopolitics of Consumption: The Food Trade (2017, co-authored with Melanie Ziegler).

Education

• Ph.D., Northwestern University