Contact
Professor Andrew Schlewitz
112 Lake Ontario Hall
Grand Valley State University
1 Campus Drive
Allendale, MI 49401
(616) 331-8158
[email protected]

Education
New School for Social Research, The Graduate Faculty (New York City), PhD in Political Science, 2000.
Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon), BAs in History and Secondary Social Science Education, 1984.

Fields: Latin American politics, comparative politics, international relations

Courses
Introduction to Latin American Studies
The “Indian Question” in the Americas; Latin American Politics
International Relations
Model Organization of American States
In the future, The Politics of Migration in the Americas, and Militarism and Democratization in Central America.

Publications
“Militarism.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition. MacMillan Reference, 2007.
“Imperial Incompetence and Guatemalan Militarism, 1931-1966.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society (Summer 2004): 585-618.

Works in Progress
Revising an article “Mobilizing Christians for Cold War” for the Journal of Cold War Studies.
Working on an Intro to an edited book “From Cold War to War on Terror: Analogies, Watersheds, and Pathways,” a collection of essays I’m editing together with Andrew Grossman and William Rose.
Article in progress on Guatemala called “States Make Coffee and Coffee Makes States.”

Research Interests
Comparative state formation in Latin and North America; US-Latin American relations; migration and globalization in historical perspective, particularly Latin American migration to North America. The role of academic and religious ideas and institutions in the formation of US foreign policy, and US relations with Latin America.

Biography
Andrew James Schlewitz was born in Portland, and raised in Albany, Oregon, the son of a chemist and homemaker, the middle child of five in a WASP middle class family. As a youth, he was active in music, sports, and the Model UN club in high school, and the youth group at his Lutheran church. He spent his summers picking strawberries and beans, and later restaurant work.

After high school, he spent a couple of years moving about in the Pacific Northwest, taking some college courses, working, and contemplating the Christian ministry. He then shifted gears, settled down, and earned BA degrees in History and Secondary Social Science Education in 1984 from Oregon State University. He met and married Margo Eason in 1981.

After graduation, he and his wife joined the Peace Corps, and served in Guatemala for three and half years, working in the eastern and western highlands as agricultural extensionists. After Peace Corps, they moved to New York City, where Andrew trained in Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Latin American Studies at the New School University. Based on Fulbright-funded research in Guatemala, he wrote a doctoral dissertation on the rise of a military state in Guatemala.

In 1996, while working on his dissertation and teaching part-time at different colleges, he became the stay-at-home dad for two of their godchildren, Stephanie and Lauriano Mercado. He learned what it meant to be a soccer mom. Margo, a health care administrator, was (and has continued to be) the breadwinner.

He finally finished his PhD in Political Science in 2000, and has since been a Professor in Political Science, first at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, then Albion College, in a town of the same name in Michigan. He has recently taken a position in Latin American Studies and Political Science here at Grand Valley State University.

Andrew currently divides his time between GVSU, and his wife, two children, and two grandchildren in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Along with teaching and research, he enjoys the guitar, novels, film, photography, and yard work. He plays basketball and volleyball when his knees give him permission, which is rarely these days.