Michael J. Bustamante
Assoc. Professor
Emilio Bacardà Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
Director, Cuban Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
Director of Academic Programs, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries
Michael J. Bustamante (PhD, Yale University) is Associate Professor of History and the Emilio Bacardí Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. He is the author of Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2021. With Jennifer Lambe (Brown University), he is co-editor of The Revolution from Within: Cuba, 1959-1980, published by Duke University Press in 2019.
At UM, Dr. Bustamante serves as Director of Academic Programs at the Cuban Heritage Collection, the largest archival repository dedicated to Cuban materials outside of the island and the largest collection of materials on the Cuban diaspora in the world. In that capacity, he oversees fellowship and grant competitions, conferences, and other academic initiatives designed to activate the collection for scholarship and public conversations in the field of Cuban Studies. He simultaneously directs the undergraduate program in Cuban Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences and its affiliated academic minor.
Dr. Bustamante's scholarship on topics such as Cuban exile youth politics and Cuban cultural policy has appeared in Journal of American Ethnic History, Latino Studies, Cuban Studies, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Anthurium, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. His writing on contemporary Cuban affairs has been featured in Foreign Affairs, NACLA Report on the Americas, Slate, Financial Times, and The Washington Post, among other publications. In 2019, he joined the editorial board of the journal Cuban Studies.
Prior to pursuing academic work, Bustamante served as Research Associate for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He is a frequently sought-after commentator on contemporary Cuban affairs, Cuban-American politics, and U.S.-Cuban relations for U.S. and international media, policymakers, and public audiences.
Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Miami, he served as Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Florida International University. He teaches courses on Cuban, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx histories.
Education
| 2016 | Ph.D. , Yale University |
| 2012 | M.Phil. , Yale University |
| 2012 | M.A. , Yale University |
| 2006 | B.A. , Yale University |
Professional Experience
| 2016 - 2021 | Assistant Professor of Latin American History, Florida International University |
| 2006 - 2009 | Research Associate for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations |
Honors & Acknowledgements
Arthur and Mary Wright Prize, Yale University, 2016
Publications
"Cold War Paquetería: Snail Mail Services Across and Around Cuba’s Sugar Curtain, 1963-1969," Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 30, no. 2 (2021): 1-17.
Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile (University of North Carolina Press, 2021).
“Cultural Politics / Political Cultures of the Cuban Revolution: New Directions in Scholarship,” Cuban Studies 47 (2019): 3-18.
The Revolution from Within: Cuba, 1959-1980, co-edited with Jennifer Lambe (Duke University Press, 2019).
