Assistant Professor

Office: LT 412
Office hours as posted or by appointment.
Phone: ext. 7-4915
Email: lgates@binghamton.edu

CURRICULUM VITAE

My research agenda is driven by an interest in the social effects of the recent wave of market-oriented reforms, or neoliberal policies, in Latin America. This interest has led me to examine the rise in business power and concomitant loss of political influence suffered by labor movements in Mexico since the 1980s. It has also led me to focus on the effects on household power relations of Mexico?s maquiladora industry (the export processing industry concentrated on Mexico?s northern border). Recently, my focus has been on the politics of market-oriented reforms, such as the recent divergence of Mexico and Venezuela. At present, I am completing a research project on the surprising election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 as president of Venezuela: the first of many anti-neoliberal candidates who have recently won elections in the region. I teach courses such as gender, Latin America, and political sociology. I also teach research methods.

Recent Courses:

Sociology of Latin America
The Politics of Neoliberalism

Recent Publications:

Gates, Leslie. Forthcoming. Electing Chávez: The Business of Anti-Neoliberal Politics in
Venezuela. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

"Theorizing Business Power in the Semiperiphery: Mexico 1970-2000" Theory and Society. 38, 2009: 57-95. Best Article Award 2009, Political Economy of World-System Section, American Sociological Association.

"The Business of Anti-Globalization Politics: Lessons from Venezuela's 1998 Presidential Elections" in Research in Political Sociology, vol. 15, 2007: 101-137.

"The Strategic Uses of Gender in Household Negotiations: Women Workers on Mexico's Northern Border." Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 21, No. 4, Oct 2002.: 507-26.

"A State's Gendered Response to Political Instability: Gendering Labor Policy in Semi-Authoritarian El Salvador (1944-1972)." (With K. Griffith) Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, Vol. 9, No. 3, Summer 2002: 248-92.

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