Rafael M. Hernández (Havana, 1948) is the editor of Temas, a Cuban quarterly in the field of so... more

Rafael M. Hernández (Havana, 1948) is the editor of Temas, a Cuban quarterly in the field of social sciences and the humanities; he is also a published poet, essayist and playwright. His university training was in French Literature and History of Philosophy (University of Havana, 1973), Master´s in Political Science (El Colegio de Mexico, 1977) and Latin American Studies (PhD program, UNAM, Mexico). He has been professor and researcher at the University of Havana and the High Institute of International Relations; director of US studies at the Centro de Estudios sobre América (a think tank of the Central Committee of the CCP) for 18 years; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Instituto Cubano de Investigación Cultural “Juan Marinello”, in Havana (1996-2008). He has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard and Columbia, the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (Mexico), the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico and the University of Puerto Rico; and conducted research at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Johns Hopkins, and other academic institutions in the U.S. and Latin America. He has published several books and essays on Cuban and U.S. policies, inter-American relations, international security , migration, Cuban culture, civil society and politics. He was founding editor of Cuadernos de Nuestra América, the journal published by the Centro de Estudios sobre América, and coordinator of the Cuban exchange program with LASA (Latin American Studies Association). His most recent books are Looking at Cuba. Essays on Culture and Civil Society (Critics National Award, 2001), Outside the Glass Urn. Social Thought and Culture in Cuba Today (2003) and The History of Havana (coauthored with D. Cluster, 2006). He has received the Illiteracy Campaign Medal and the LASA Academic Excellency Award (2006). less