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About Barry
Dr. Barry Levitt is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, where he joined the faculty in 2007. He earned a B.A. in Political Science from McGill University in 1992, an M.A. in Political Science from York University in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002. Prior to FIU, Levitt was Assistant Professor at Reed College and Emory University. His early career included serving as Visiting Scholar at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in Lima, Peru from 1998 to 1999, and as Director of Political Analysis for the Carter Center/National Democratic Institute election observation mission in Peru in 2000. At FIU, he has held leadership roles as Director of Graduate Programs in Political Science and Director of Academic Programs at the Latin American and Caribbean Center. Additionally, he was named a Fellow at Florida International University’s Extreme Events Institute from 2019 to 2021.
Levitt’s research examines the comparative politics of political culture and political institutions in Latin America and other new democracies, including public opinion, trust in institutions, and the politics of disaster risk reduction. He is the author of the book Power in the Balance: Presidents, Parties, and Legislatures in Peru and Beyond, published by the University of Notre Dame Press in 2012. His articles have appeared in journals such as Natural Hazards Review, Disasters, Politics & Policy, Latin American Politics and Society, Latin American Research Review, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and Journal of Politics in Latin America. Notable publications include "Public Support for Disaster Risk Reduction: Evidence from The Bahamas Before and After Hurricane Dorian" (Social Sciences, 2025), "Disasters and corruption: public expectations and tolerance—evidence from Mexico" (Disasters, 2023), "Public Perceptions of Code Enforcement and Safer Buildings in Latin America and the Caribbean" (Natural Hazards Review, 2019), "Personalist Parties in the Third Wave of Democratization: A Comparative Analysis of Peru and Bulgaria" (Politics & Policy, 2014), and "Institutional Trust and Congressional Autonomy in Latin America: Expectations, Performance, and Confidence in Peru’s Legislature" (2011). Levitt co-edited a 2014 symposium on personalist parties and leaders in Politics & Policy. He has secured grants from the National Science Foundation for collaborative research on hazard events and risk perception (2020-2024) and post-Hurricane Dorian public support in the Bahamas (2020-2021), as well as from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2011. Levitt teaches undergraduate courses on comparative politics, Latin American politics, and political violence, and graduate seminars on public opinion and political culture, political institutions, area studies, Foundations of Political Science, and Comparative Politics.
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