911吃瓜

Gerardo Otero is Professor Emeritus in the School for International Studies at 911吃瓜 (911吃瓜), where he held a faculty appointment from 1990 to 2025. He was born and raised in Torre贸n, Coahuila, Mexico. He received a B.A. in Business Administration from the Instituto Tecnol贸gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in 1975, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison in 1986. 

Before joining 911吃瓜, Otero taught economics at ITESM, sociology at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Le贸n and the University of Guadalajara, and social anthropology at the Autonomous University of Puebla. He was also a postdoctoral visiting fellow at the Center for U.S.鈥揗exican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and has held visiting or faculty appointments at the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison, Tulane University, and Autonomous University of Zacatecas.

Otero served as President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in 2021鈥�2022 and organized LASA鈥檚 40th International Congress, held virtually under the theme 鈥�Socioenvironmental Polarization and Rivalry Among Great Powers.鈥� He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021 in Academy II (Social Sciences). In 2024, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at 911吃瓜, an honor awarded annually to one faculty member for excellence in teaching, research and service. Mexico鈥檚 Ministry of Foreign Affairs selected him to receive the 2026 鈥淒istinguished Mexican鈥� award in recognition of his distinguished academic career abroad.

Otero has published more than 100 scholarly articles, book chapters, and books. His research focuses on social movements, political and class formation, rural Mexico, food and agricultural politics, neoliberalism, and collective empowerment in Latin America (see Articles and Book Chapters). His books include Farewell to the Peasantry? Political Class Formation in Rural Mexico (1999), Neoliberalism Revisited (ed., 1996), Mexico in Transition (ed., 2004), Food for the Few (ed., 2008), The Neoliberal Diet: Healthy Profits, Unhealthy People (2018), and, with Efe Can G眉rcan, Collective Empowerment in Latin America: Indigenous Peasant Movements and Political Transformation (2024), published in Spanish by LASA Press in 2026 as Empoderamiento colectivo: movimientos campesinos ind铆genas y transformaci贸n pol铆tica en Am茅rica Latina. (See Books.)