Jonathan Eastwood (Assistant Professor of Sociology) Named Sherman Emerging Scholar

Jonathan Eastwood, assistant professor of sociology at Washington and Lee University, has been named the sixth Sherman Emerging Scholar by the Department of History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. They selected him for this distinction through a national competition. As a Sherman Emerging Scholar, Eastwood delivered a public lecture on Venezuela at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

During the summer of 2007, Eastwood studied in and did research on Venezuela through a Fulbright Research Grant. In 2006, he published The Rise of Nationalism in Venezuela through the University Press of Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in history and sociology from Boston University in 2004. He came to W&L in 2006.

An expert in the history of Venezuelan nationalism, Eastwood discussed the leadership of President Hugo Chavez, including his eight-year controversial presidency, and several aspects of Chavez's relationship with the Venezuelan past, including his identification with Simon Bolivar, the Latin American revolutionary who brought independence to Venezuela in the early 19th century.

"The Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is among the most complex and important developments in recent years in Latin America-and maybe the world," said Eastwood. "This revolution, and Chavez himself, are often misunderstood."