Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Tom Narins is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Planning with research interests in the geopolitics of China’s growing engagement with the global economy. Employing language competencies in Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese his primary focus is on China – Latin America and the Caribbean relations. Professor Narins teaches courses such as: China in the Global Arena; Global Politics, Place & Space; World Regions & Global Markets; and World Cities.
His work investigates China’s geopolitical logic and considers the country’s broader goals beyond its territorial borders in the emerging multi-polar world order.
His research questions China’s presumed dominance as the new international power player in the developing world. It also highlights the fact that China’s broader integration with Latin America, while growing, is still constrained by geo-economic factors such as the increasing strength (and weakness) of Latin American governments; historically strong Latin American ties to the U.S. and Europe; and the competitive realities of the expansionary plans of emerging regional economies such as Chile and Brazil.
Tom's current research focuses on the contemporary attractiveness of ‘the Chinese development model’ in and across Latin America.