CIGI Chair of Governance in the Americas

Balsillie School, Department of Political Science (UW)


Contact Information

Office Location:  HH 354
Phone Numbers:  519.888.4567 x 38892
Email:  hochstet @ uwaterloo.ca

Education

PhD in Political Science, University of Minnesota, 1994
BA in Economics and Latin American Studies, Earlham College, 1984

Areas of Specialization

South American Politics
Environmental Politics of Developing Regions
Civil Society and Social Movements
Mercosur
United Nations Conferences
 

Short Bio

Kathryn Hochstetler is CIGI Chair of Governance in the Americas in the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. Previously, she taught in the Political Science departments of the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University. She has also held research positions at the Centre for Brazilian Studies at Oxford University and the Instituto de Desarrollo Economico y Social (Institute for Economic and Social Development) in Buenos Aires. Her PhD is from the University of Minnesota, in Political Science.

Dr. Hochstetler has published widely on topics such as civil society and social movements, environmental politics, and presidentialism, with an empirical focus on South America or United Nations conferences. She has published three books: Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism in State and Society (Duke University Press, 2007, with Margaret E. Keck); Palgrave Advances in International Environmental Politics (Palgrave MacMillan, 2006, co-edited with Michele Betsill and Dimitris Stevis); and Sovereignty, Democracy and Global Civil Society: State-Society Relations at UN World Conferences (SUNY University Press, 2005, with Ann Marie Clark and Elisabeth Jay Friedman).

Her current research covers two main topics: one project examines the role of protest and civil society organizations in current South American politics, while a second project focuses on Brazilian development choices in the 21st century, with special attention to the roles of regionalism, sustainable development, and public finance in those choices.

Recent scholarly publications

Kathryn Hochstetler and Elisabeth Jay Friedman. 2008. Can Civil Society Organizations Solve the Crisis of Partisan Representation in Latin America? Latin American Politics and Society 50, 2: 1-32.

Kathryn Hochstetler. 2008. Organized Civil Society in Lula's Brazil. In Democratic Brazil Revisited, ed. P. Kingstone and T. Power, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 33-53.

Kathryn Hochstetler and Margaret E. Keck. 2007. Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism in State and Society. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Kathryn Hochstetler. 2007. The Multi-level Governance of GM Food in Mercosur. In The International Politics of Genetically Modified Food: Diplomacy, Trade, and Law, ed. R. Falkner. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 157-173.

Kathryn Hochstetler. 2006. Rethinking Presidentialism: Challenges and Presidential Falls in South America. Comparative Politics 38, 4: 401-418.

Recent academic/professional awards

Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism in State and Society, is being awarded the 2009 Lynton Caldwell Prize for the "Best Book in Environmental Politics published in the past 3 years". This award is presented annually by the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics (STEP) section of the American Political Science Association.

2008-2009 Distinguished Graduate Award, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota