by Cheryl Smithem

The College of Charleston’s School of Languages, Cultures and World Affairs will host a lecture by one of the foremost authorities on contemporary Cuba. Dr. Julia Sweig from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) will speak on Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 4 p.m. in the Wells Fargo Auditorium at the Beatty Center (5 Liberty St.).  Her lecture is titled, “Changes in Cuba: the Evolution of the US-Cuban Relationship.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Douglas Friedman, the Director of the College’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program and the International Studies Program, said, “For the last 50 years the U.S. has had an embargo on Cuba. Most foreign policy experts now consider this position to be ineffective. Dr. Sweig will address this and how Cuban relations have changed and why U.S. policy should change as well. We’re very glad to have Dr. Sweig speak. Her recent book, Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, is very well-received and is essential to understanding the reality of Cuba today.”

Sweig is the Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council and the author Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2009, 2013) and Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century (Public Affairs, 2006), as well as numerous publications on Latin America and American foreign policy. Sweig’s Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground (Harvard University Press, 2002) received the American Historical Association’s Herbert Feis Award for best book of the year by an independent scholar. She also writes a bi-weekly column for Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil’s leading newspaper. She holds a B.A. from the University of California and a M.A. and Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

The Council on Foreign Relations’ David Rockefeller Studies Program — CFR’s “think tank” — is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners, called “fellows.” Their expertise covers the world’s major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today’s global agenda.

For more information on the lecture, contact Friedman, at 843.953.4884, or via his e-mail friedmand@cofc.edu.