Fall 2024 Visiting Faculty Fellow

Professor Adrian Hearn of the University of Melbourne studies international relations from the ground up. Of English and Brazilian background, he has also lived in the United States, Australia, Cuba, and China. Adrian’s policy papers have been published by the European Commission, Chatham House, and the Inter-American Dialogue. His books include Diaspora and Trust: Cuba, Mexico and the Rise of China (Duke University Press 2016), Cuba: Religion Social Capital, and Development (Duke University Press 2008), The Changing Currents of Transpacific Integration (Lynne Rienner 2016), and China Engages Latin America (Lynne Rienner 2011). Alongside his academic work, Adrian’s community arts project Suns of Mercury produces multicultural music, films, and performances.

Adrian will offer a series of seminars on the topic of “Ethnicity and Development in Cuba,” drawing on three years of research in Santiago de Cuba and Havana since 2000. He will present the core concepts of his books alongside insights from his current work with herbal medicine producers and practitioners, which is sponsored by the Australian government's aid program and the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation. His seminars will cover pre-Columbian settlement of Cuba by Indigenous migrants, colonization by Spain and incursions by Britain and France, the forced migration of Yoruba and other West Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the introduction of indentured Chinese workers in the mid-19th century. Adrian proposes that these waves of migration are not only key chapters in Cuba’s past, but also vibrant foundations for multiculturalism and inclusive development in the future.