Keynote biographies: “The Mexican Diaspora in the US and Cultural Engagement”

Keynote Speaker

Alexandra Delano, Associate Professor and Chair of Global Studies, The New School, New York City 

Alexandra Délano Alonso is Associate Professor and Chair of Global Studies at The New School and the current holder of the Eugene M. Lang Professorship for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring. She received her doctorate in International Relations from the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on diaspora policies, migration in the Central America-Mexico-US corridor, sanctuary, and the politics of memory in relation to borders and violence.

She is the author of From Here and There: Diaspora Policies, Integration and Social Rights beyond Borders (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her book Mexico and Its Diaspora in the United States: Policies of Emigration since 1848 (Cambridge University Press, 2011) was the co-winner of the William LeoGrande Prize for the best book on US-Latin America Relations and was published in Spanish by El Colegio de México in 2014. Her recent projects include Brotes, a poetry collection and Fragments, a short film that probe political and personal questions in the context of the pandemic.

She is co-founder and faculty fellow at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility and a member of the Sanctuary Working Group at The New School.

Moderator

César Villanueva Rivas, Professor of International Relations and Public/Cultural Diplomacy, Universidad Iberoamericana

César Villanueva is Professor of International Relations and Public/Cultural Diplomacy at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from Linnaeus University in Sweden, with a specialization in diplomatic studies (2007). He also holds two Master’s degrees, one in International Public Policy from University of Washington, Seattle and a second in Fine Arts, from San Carlos Academy of Arts (ENAP-UNAM), in Mexico. He is a frequent lecturer on soft power, international images and cultural/public diplomacy at different Universities and Cultural Centers in the Americas and Europe. He is the author of four books on the field of soft power, public diplomacy and international images, and has also published dozens of articles in journals around the world. He is also, the co-editor of the Series Governance, Development and Social Inclusion in Latin America, under signature of Palgrave-MacMillan. He translated the famous Joseph Nye’s book Soft Power into Spanish (Poder Suave, la clave del éxito en la política internacional, Universidad Iberoamericana Press), and wrote the foreword for the Spanish speaking audiences (2016). César Villanueva has been Coordinator and Director of the Department of International Studies at Universidad Iberoamericana (2016-2020). He also coordinates activities for the research project on national stereotypes and images, using data science techniques. The Report on the Image of Mexico Abroad (2013-2018) is coming out on the Summer 2021 and his latest book, Sombreros, Frida and Boom: Alterities of Mexico and the Mexicans abroad, is also coming out for sale in the Fall 2021 (Universidad Iberoamericana press).