Cubanist Will Join FIU History Department Faculty

Image: michael-bustamante.jpg
Photo courtesy of the University of Miami Libraries

The FIU History Department has appointed Michael J. Bustamante as Assistant Professor of Latin American History, beginning in the fall of 2016. Mr. Bustamante will also be affiliated with the Cuban Research Institute and the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center.

Michael J. Bustamante is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American and Caribbean History at Yale University. His dissertation, "Cuban Counterpoints: Memory Struggles in Revolution and Exile," excavates public spectacle, rare press, private correspondence, and visual media to track clashes over Cuban collective and historical memory in the wake of the 1959 Revolution. Moving between the island and its diaspora, the project explores how political leaders and average citizens understood the Revolution's roots and commemorated key episodes in its history. Whether in Havana or Miami, the past constituted a fraught battleground on which Cubans for and against Fidel Castro sought to consolidate and sustain rival political projects.

Mr. Bustamante's essays on Cuban history and Latin American affairs have appeared in scholarly journals such as the Journal of American Ethnic History, Foreign Affairs, Perspectives on History, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Current History, and Latino Studies. Prior to graduate school, he served as Research Associate for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He received an M.A. in History and a B.A. in History and International Studies from Yale University.

Mr. Bustamante has conducted archival research in Cuba and has received fellowships from the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami Libraries, a MacMillan Center Dissertation Research Grant, and a Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.