Dr. Jorge Duany, Director of the Cuban Research Institute, will retire this Friday, September 13. Dr. Duany has had a long and distinguished academic career, with the last 12 years at the helm of CRI and as a professor in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies.
Born in Cuba and raised in Panama and Puerto Rico, Dr. Duany previously served as acting dean of the College of Social Sciences and professor of anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (UPR). He was also chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and director of the journal Revista de Ciencias Sociales at UPR. He has held visiting research and teaching appointments at several U.S. universities, including Harvard, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and the City University of New York.
He earned his Ph.D. in Latin American studies, specializing in anthropology, at the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds an M.A. in social sciences from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in psychology from Columbia University. Dr. Duany has published extensively on migration, ethnicity, race, nationalism, and transnationalism in Cuba, the Caribbean, and the United States. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of twenty-two books, including Cuba and Puerto Rico: Transdisciplinary Approaches to History, Literature, and Culture (2023); Picturing Cuba: Art, Culture, and Identity on the Island and in the Diaspora (2019); and Blurred Borders: Transnational Migration between the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States (2011).
Under his leadership, CRI achieved many extraordinary milestones that have enhanced its recognition as a top academic center of its type in the world. To cite just a few examples:
- raised nearly $1.4 million from private foundations, nonprofit organizations, and individual gifts
- won a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a fellowship program for threatened Cuban scholars in the humanities
- organized the Conference on Cuban and Cuban American Studies, the largest international conference outside the island, and six FIU Cuba Polls, the longest-running survey of Cuban American views on U.S. policy toward Cuba
- cosponsored the publication of Briefings on Cuba, a series of analyses of current affairs by top experts
- organized more than 300 public lectures and panel discussions by leading and emerging scholars, writers, and artists
Sebastián Arcos, associate director of CRI, has been appointed interim director of the institute. He is an alumnus of the Green School, with an MPA in Public Administration and BA in International Relations. An FIU employee for 29 years, he previously served as deputy and acting chief of staff in the Office of the President and was part of the Green School’s founding staff. Mr. Arcos will serve as acting director until a new director is selected in a national search.