Dr. Johnathan Benjamin-Alvarado '98
Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado '98, the first Hispanic awarded a PHD in Political Science at UGA, will be visiting the campus on September 15 and 16 to deliver lectures in honor of Hispanic Heritage month and Mexican Independence Day. Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado was formerly a Project Manager for the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies under the direction of Dr. William Potter. He received his M.A. in International Policy Studies (1993) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Georgia (1998). Additionally, he attended UCLA and Harvard University. Details on his lecture itinerary are coming soon.
Dr. Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Assistant Director for Research and Outreach of the Office of Latino/Latin American Initiatives of the Great Plains. He is also a Senior Research Associate with the University of Georgia’s Center for International Trade and Security specializing on Latin American economic development and nonproliferation affairs.
He has conducted research related to Cuba’s efforts to develop a nuclear energy capability and broader energy development issues and is recognized as one of the United States’ leading specialists in this issue area. Since 1992, he has visited Cuba 18 times for field research on energy development and has conducted interviews with a number of senior government officials in Cuba’s nuclear and related agencies. He has published articles, monographs and commentaries on this subject in Spanish, Russian, German and English in newspapers, scholarly and policy journals including The Nonproliferation Review, Cuba in Transition, Yaderni Kontrol (Russia) and the Christian Science Monitor.
His book, Power to the People: Energy and the Cuban Nuclear Program (2000) was published by Routledge, Inc. He presently has another book under contract with the University Press of Florida, titled Cuba’s Energy Strategy: Economic Structures, Technological Choices, and Sustainability (forthcoming 2006).
In 2000 he was awarded a three-year research grant from the Ford Foundation to study the ink between sustainable economic development and future good governance in Cuba. He is presently embarking on an initiative to convene a working group of U.S. and Cuban scholars and practitioners to engage in a dialogue on shared energy development issues in the 21st century. His research has attracted national attention as he has appeared on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight and the PBS program, America’s Defense Monitor and has been quoted in the New York Times, and the Miami Herald, as well as a number of international news sources including Reuters and Agence France Presse. He is presently a consultant to government, research and policy institutions on intersection between infra-structural development, trade and security policy and good governance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 2003, Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado received the UNO Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award and the Outstanding Teaching in Political Science Award from Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. He has received numerous grants including: grants from the John Beverly and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Foundation; The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; The Ford Foundation; The Johns Hopkins University Cuba Exchange Program; and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia for his work on Cuba. He is part of research team that was recently awarded a $1 million federal appropriation from the U.S. Department of Education to establish a center for Latino and Latin American Initiatives at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Dr. Benjamin-Alvarado has also been instrumental in promoting outreach to area high schools through his participation in Brown University’s Teaching American History program, The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program and UNO’s American Democracy Project.He has also presented seminars and workshops to Omaha and Millard Public Schools AP instructors on global politics and comparative government and is a consultant to the College Board. He is active in community and municipal organizations in Omaha’s predominately Latino South Omaha neighborhood, and serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Chicano Awareness Center of Omaha. He also serves on the corporate Board of Directors for FBG Services of Omaha, and the Personnel Board of the City of Omaha.
