Kevin Funk

Kevin Funk is a Fellow in Global Thought, a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, and an affiliated faculty member of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. He is a political economist and Latin Americanist who specializes in globalization, the politics of Brazil and Chile, and urban studies. He is also interested in the sociology of academic knowledge production, cultural analysis, and qualitative and interpretive methods.

Funk is the author of Rooted Globalism: Arab-Latin American Elite Consciousness and the Politics of Alternative Imaginaries (2022, Indiana University Press), which analyzes Latin America’s growing economic ties with the Arab world and explores how Brazilian, Chilean, and Argentine business elites of Arab descent navigate between local, transnational, and global identities and spaces.

His current research and book project (under contract with Vanderbilt University Press) analyzes the socio-spatial changes generated by contemporary neoliberal urban mega-projects in Rio de Janeiro, situating them vis-à-vis longstanding elite efforts to “modernize” and “globalize” the city.

His writings have also appeared in Journal of Cultural Economy, International Studies Perspectives, New Political Science, PS: Political Science & Politics, Journal of Politics in Latin America, and The Latin Americanist, as well as in numerous edited volumes.

Funk received his Ph.D. in Political Science, with a certificate in Latin American Studies, from the University of Florida. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has conducted extensive international fieldwork.

Areas of interest: global/comparative political economy; race, class, and inequality; Latin America; Latin American-Middle Eastern and South-South relations; cities

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