Marifeli Pérez-Stable

A photograph of Marifeli Pérez-Stable

Marifeli Pérez-Stable, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of sociology in the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University.

Dr. Pérez-Stable is the author of The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy (third edition, 2012; translated into Spanish, 1998) and The United States and Cuba: Intimate Enemies (2011). She is also the editor of Looking Forward: Comparative Perspectives on Cuba's Transition (2007) and Cuba en el siglo XXI: Ensayos sobre la transición (2006). In 2001–03, she chaired the task force on "Memory, Truth, and Justice," which issued the report Cuban National Reconciliation (2003, also released in Spanish). From 2004 to 2009, she served as vice president for democratic governance at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an associate of COMEXI, the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. She was also a senior non-resident fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Dr. Perez-Stable served as interim director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center and as associate chair of the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies at FIU. She has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs; a member of the executive council of the Latin American Studies Association; president of the Institute of Cuban Studies; member of the board of directors of the North American Congress on Latin America; vice president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy; and member of the editorial board of Cuban Studies / Estudios Cubanos. She is currently a member of the independent Cuban think thank Convivencia. 

Between 2004 and 2011, her biweekly column on Latin American topics appeared in the Miami Herald. Her opinion pieces have also appeared in El País, the Financial Times, La Vanguardia, El Clarín, Excelsior, El Nuevo Herald, and The Nation. She was also an editorial contributor to the Real Instituto Elcano and Infolatam.

Professor Pérez-Stable received her Ph.D. in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her master’s in political science from the University of Florida.