PhD Student: Asa K. Cusack

Details

Email : a.k.cusack@sheffield.ac.uk

Thesis title: The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America: The Birth of Post-Neoliberal Regionalism?

Start year: 2009

Supervisors

Professor Graham Harrison and Dr Garrett Brown

Research Topic

By better understanding the nature, extent, and functioning of The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), this project will add to a regionalism literature that cannot currently account for groupings built on such unconventional foundations. By further analysing ALBA through the prism of post-neoliberalism, this thesis will also explore the nature and validity of this emerging concept, considering the extent to which the ALBA-shaped hole in the regionalism literature might be filled by insights originating in the scholarship of post-neoliberalism.

Research Interests

Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean
The structure and agency debate
Political analysis and new media

Book Reviews

• “Barry Cannon – Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution: Populism and Democracy in a Globalised Age”, in Political Studies Review, 9, 2, 285-287 (2011)
• “Amitav Acharya - Whose Ideas Matter? Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism”, in Political Studies Review, 9, 1, 133-137 (2011)
• "Rick Fawn (ed) – Globalising the Regional, Regionalising the Global”, in Political Studies Review, 9, 1, 81-94 (2011)

Conference Participation

• "Pragmatism Left, Right, and Centre?: Smallness, Dependent Development, and International Cooperation in the ALBA Member-States of the Anglophone Caribbean", Society of Latin American Studies annual conference, University of Sheffield, 18-20 April 2012.
• “CARICOM to CARIFORUM: Surrendered Regionalism, State (In)capacity, and the Power of Ideas” @ SIDNet Postgraduate Conference, ICOSS, University of Sheffield, March 1 2010.
• Co-organiser and panel chair (“Innovations in Development”), Sheffield International Development Network Postgraduate Conference, Interdisciplinary Centre for the Social Sciences, University of Sheffield, March 1 2010.

Presentations

• “The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA)”, Northern Social Forum, Northern College, Barnsley, 18 June 2010.
• Presentation to Round Table editorial board, “CARICOM to CARIFORUM”, Royal Commonwealth Society, London, 28 January, 2010.
• Poster presentation (with Jean Grugel), “Children’s Rights and Children’s Citizenship in Non-European Contexts”, for the Political Economy Research Centre @ Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences, University of Sheffield, February 2010.
• Poster presentation (with Jean Grugel), “Children’s Rights and Children’s Citizenship in Non-European Contexts”, Sheffield International Development Network launch event @ University of Sheffield, 18 March 2010.

Teaching

• POL225 - The New Politics of Latin America (2012)
• “What does Endnote Do and Why Should I Care? Reference Management from Endnote to Zotero”, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, July 2010.
• English for Academic Purposes, Escuela de Idiomas, Universidad Regional del Sureste (URSE), Oaxaca, Mexico, 2002-2003.

Awards

• Round Table Commonwealth Award for Young Scholars (2009)
• Bethan Reeves Memorial Prize for best academic attainment and departmental prize for best dissertation (2009 cohort), Department of Politics, University of Sheffield
• Departmental prizes for best academic attainment and best dissertation (2007 cohort), Department of American Studies, University of Hull

Previous Education

• MA Research Methods in Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, 2009.
• BA (Hons), American Studies, University of Hull, 2007.

Professional Affiliations

• Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS)
• Postgraduates in Latin American Studies (PILAS)
• Observatoire Politique de l'Amérique Latine et des Caraibes (OPALC)
• British International Studies Association (BISA)
• Political Studies Association (PSA)

Research Community Participation

http://www.zotero.org/asacusack

http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/asa-cusack/

http://sheffield.academia.edu/AsaKCusack

Other Work

• Research assistant to Jean Grugel for EU-funded project on Children’s Rights in Non-European Contexts, 2009.
• Departmental IT Officer (from February 2010), Department of Politics, University of Sheffield.
• Spanish/French translation if and when the opportunity arises: http://minimo.50webs.org