Rate My Professor Andrew Schlewitz

Andrew Schlewitz is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Grand Valley State University, affiliated with Area and Global Studies and the Latin American & Latino/a Studies program. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from The New School for Social Research in 2000, with a Fulbright-funded dissertation on the rise of a military state in Guatemala. Schlewitz holds B.A. degrees in History and Secondary Social Science Education from Oregon State University, awarded in 1984. Following graduation, he served with his wife in the Peace Corps as agricultural extensionists in Guatemala's eastern and western highlands for three and a half years, fostering his expertise in Latin American affairs. Trained in comparative politics, international relations, and Latin American studies at the New School, he conducted research based in Guatemala.

Schlewitz previously held faculty positions in Political Science at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and Albion College in Michigan. His research focuses on Latin American politics, comparative politics, and international relations, including comparative state formation in Latin and North America, U.S.-Latin American relations, migration and globalization in historical perspective, and the role of academic and religious ideas and institutions in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America. Notable publications include "Imperial Incompetence and Guatemalan Militarism, 1931-1966" in the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society (2004), "Militarism" in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Second Edition (2007), and "Una nueva oportunidad en la investigación del Ejército guatemalteco en el Archivo General de Centro América" in Mesoamerica (2012). Current projects encompass revising "Mobilizing Christians for Cold War" for the Journal of Cold War Studies, editing "From Cold War to War on Terror: Analogies, Watersheds, and Pathways" with Andrew Grossman and William Rose, and "States Make Coffee and Coffee Makes States" on Guatemala. He teaches Introduction to Latin American Studies, Latin American Politics, International Relations, the Model Organization of American States, and The 'Indian Question' in the Americas, with forthcoming courses on the Politics of Migration in the Americas and Militarism and Democratization in Central America. Schlewitz has appeared on WZZM 13 to discuss U.S.-Cuba relations.