
Two Stony Brook faculty members recently applied their expertise to current affairs in articles appearing on prominent websites.
Associate professor of history Eric Zolov contributed an op-ed, Let’s Revisit Helms-Burton, to Huffington Post. The article, appearing on January 16, urged further strengthening of US diplomatic ties with Cuba.
Zolov called for “an engaged dialogue that opens rather than narrows the space for Cuba’s political, economic and cultural expression and allows the country to retain its revolutionary achievements within a democratic framework.”
A specialist in Latin American history, Zolov is general editor of the forthcoming volume Icons of Mexico.
Shobana Shankar, an assistant professor of history, explores parallels between Boko Haram and other marginalized groups in northern Nigeria in an article published in the London School of Economics “Africa at LSE” website.

Shankar urges better understanding of the complexities of Nigerian history, arguing that “Westerners are quick to scapegoat poor young men and overcredit international terrorist networks” for Boko Haram and similar phenomena.
An expert on Nigerian history, Dr. Shankar recently published Who Shall Enter Paradise? Christian Origins in Muslim Nigeria, c. 1890-1975.
Add comment