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School of Politics and International Relations
   
   
  

Port, Lukas

 


Research Topic

Political Discourse in Cuba

Following my initial interest in examining why the Cuban system survived the major changes after 1989 and the end of the Cold War, I have narrowed down my research to examining the mechanics of Cuban political discourse.

Cuban political discourse, as any other, weaves together different strands of relevant discourses from within and without in an effort to organise the Cuban field of meaning so as to fix the identities of people, objects and practices in a particular way. Political discourses involve the creation of acceptable hegemonic practices and norms perceived as exemplary and accepted by the majority in a society. Using a post-structural approach and referring to Michel Foucault's thesis that language is not a transparent tool through which we can see reality, but which instead creates reality, I am focusing on analysing Cuban political discourse and mapping its particular network of meaning and internal mechanics.

My research is inter-disciplinary and it is supervised both at the School of Modern Languages & Cultures, and Politics and International Relations.

 

Research Supervisors

Antoni Kapcia & Professor Paul Heywood

 

Primary Funding Source

European Studentship, University Studentship

 

Centre

Cuba Research Forum, University of Nottingham
 

Research Interests

  • Latin America
  • Social Capital
  • Democratisation
  • Election Monitoring
  • State-Building
  • United Nations System.

 

Publications

Book review in The International Journal of Cuban Studies (2009): Castro (Third Edition). Profiles in Power Series by Sebastian Balfour.

http://www.cubastudiesjournal.org/issue-3/books/profile-of-power.cfm

 

Conferences and Presentations

  • Cuba 1959-2009 Conference: Queen's University, Kingston, Canada - Paper Presentation: Cuba Beyond Ideological Bias
  • Cuba Research Forum Conference: University of Nottingham, UK - Paper Presentation: Foundations of Cuban Political Discourse
  • Nottingham Institute of Russian and East European Studies - Presentation: How to Build a Trustworthy State

 

 

School of Politics and International Relations

University of Nottingham
University Park, Nottingham
NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 4862
fax: +44 (0) 115 951 4859
email: politics-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk