SPIA’s Griffin Named Fulbright Distinguished Chair

Clifford Griffin, associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, was named a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in International Relations, giving him the opportunity to conduct research at the International Relations Institute at the University of Sao Paulo this year.

Griffin’s project focuses on social media, digital illiteracy and the challenges to democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean. He’s an expert in the field, having spent more than 25 years researching, teaching, consulting and writing on all aspects of Latin American and Caribbean political economy, including drug trafficking, money laundering and crime, migration, trade, development and security.

Griffin is no stranger to the University of Sao Paulo. In addition to the International Relations Institute, he’s collaborated extensively with two other centers at the university over the past 12 years: the Center for the Study of Violence and the Public Policy Research Institute.

Awards in the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program are among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program. Griffin is only the fourth recipient of the chair at the University of Sao Paulo. Previous recipients include Harvard’s Robert Irwin Rotberg, former president of the World Peace Foundation; Abraham F. Lowenthal, founder of the Wilson Center’s Latin American Program; and Brown University’s James N. Green, a one-time political activist in Latin America, who co-founded the first gay rights organization in Brazil.

This post was originally published in NC State News.