Position: Professor

Campus Affiliation: City College of New York

Email: sbaver@gc.cuny.edu

Degrees/Diplomas: Ph.D. Columbia University

Research Interests: Latin America, Caribbean politics, environmental policy

Prof. Baver teaches at the City College of New York, where she has served as the Director of the CCNY Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. She has written The Political Economy of Colonialism: The State and Industrialization in Puerto Rico.  Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993; and co-edited Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition.  Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1996. She is completing a manuscript (co-edited with Barbara D. Lynch), Caribbean Environmental Issues: Beyond Sun and Sand. Professor Baver has received various CUNY awards and two Fulbrights to Latin America.

Books

Sherrie Baver and Barbara Deutsch Lynch (eds.), Beyond Sun and Sand: Carribbean Environmentalisms (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2006).

Filtered through the lens of the North American and European media, the Caribbean appears to be a series of idyllic landscapes—sanctuaries designed for sailing, diving, and basking in the sun on endless white sandy beaches. Conservation literature paints a similarly enticing portrait, describing the region as a habitat for endangered coral reefs and their denizens, parrots, butterflies, turtles, snails, and a myriad of plant species.

In both versions, the image of the exotic landscape overshadows the rich island cultures that are both linguistically and politically diverse, but trapped in a global economy that offers few options for development. Popular depictions also overlook the reality that the region is fraught with environmental problems, including water and air pollution, solid waste mismanagement, destruction of ecosystems, deforestation, and the transition from agriculture to ranching.

Bringing together ten essays by social scientists and activists, Beyond Sun and Sand provides the most comprehensive exploration to date of the range of environmental issues facing the region and the social movements that have developed to deal with them. The authors consider the role that global and regional political economies play in this process and provide valuable insight into Caribbean environmentalism. Many of the essays by prominent Caribbean analysts are made available for the first time in English.

Gabriel Haslip-Viera and Sherrie Baver eds., Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).

Since the 1980’s a number of important books have been published that focus on issues affecting Hispanics throughout the United States; none until now, however, have focused solely on the New York experience. The 12 essays collected in Latinos in New York comprise the first booklength analysis of the past and present condition of Latinos in metropolitan New York. Focusing on Puerto Ricans, these essays also contain the most up-to-date thinking on the newer Latino migrant groups in New York such as the Dominicans, Cubans, Mexicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Peruvians. Not only do the contributors emphasize the specificity of the New York Latino experience, they also suggest the generalization of many of their findings and policy recommendations to the national level.

Latinos in New York will be used as a text for courses in ethnic studies, sociology, political science, anthropology, and indeed any class that deals with minorities in urban America. While the book emphasizes what is unique about the Latino experience in New York, the authors also intend that the essays will be of relevance to general readers interested in Latino issues, policy analysts, and students of the Latino experience throughout the United States.

Sherrie Baver, The Political Economy of Colonialism: The State and Industrialization in Puerto Rico, (Westport: Praeger, 1993).

This study examines how Puerto Rico’s industrial development process has shaped and been shaped by the state, relations with Washington, and Puerto Rican society, especially in light of the economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s. Sherrie Baver posits that Puerto Rico’s extreme integration into the U.S. political economy was an unintended consequence of the development model, and that its result has been a state whose tasks, such as securing an environment for private capital accumulation and income redistribution, have become increasingly regulated by the federal government, challenging Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status. Recommended for scholars of Latin American Politics and Third World Development.