Jeffrey Sommers

Professor, African & African Diaspora Studies

Education

PhD, Northeastern University

Research Interests

Research and teaching is conducted on the “spatial fixes” to crises of global capital accumulation, with a special focus on the Baltic States. Professor Sommers has researched and critiqued austerity policies in response to the 2008 global economic crisis. Further research centers on the political economy of Africa’s (and its Diaspora) accelerated integration into new networks of accumulation. Other areas investigated are development studies, developmental states, international political economy and hegemonic transitions.\nProfessor Sommers also maintains a visiting professorship at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. He has held three US State Department Fulbright Awards (and two extensions). Additionally, he has served as an invited specialist for a State Department new Ambassador training in Washington, DC. Furthermore, his counsel has been sought by investors, along with ministerial and government leaders through to the prime minister level. In addition to his academic work, he has been published in outlets such as the Financial Times, The New York Times, The World Financial Review, The Guardian, The Nation, Social Europe and others.

Select Media Articles and Appearances

MPTV’s International Focus, May 13, 2014
The New York Times, February 24, 2014
Financial Times, June 21, 2012
The Guardian, September 16, 2011
CounterPunch, January 18, 2011

Selected Publications

Sommers, J. W., Jaitner, F. , Olteanu, T. , & Spöri, T. () Decline of the Demos: Latvia, the Face of New Europe and Austerity's Return.Crises in the Post-Soviet Space: From the Dissolution of the Soviet Union to the conflict in Ukraine. Routledge Press.

Sommers, J. W., & Paik, P. (2018) A Blow to Interventionists, as US and North Korea Move Toward Peace.CounterPunch. CounterPunch.

Sommers, J. W., & Fons, C. (2018) Fear and Loathing of a Blue Wave in Wisconsin: Scott Walker Reprises in Class Warfare Against Schools and Teachers.CounterPunch. CounterPunch.

Sommers, J. W.(2018) Bond Villain in the World Economy: Latvia's Offshore Banking Sector.CounterPunch. CounterPunch.

Sommers, J. W.(2017) This is How the New Colder War Turns Hot.The Nation.

Sommers, J. W., & Beldavs, V. (2017) The emerging field of space economics: theoretical and practical considerations.The Space Review.

Sommers, J. W.(2017) L'austérité lettone: le visage de la Nouvelle Europe.Perspectives Libres, Nov(21), 193-217.

Sommers, J. W.(2017) Donald Trump and Steve Bannon's Russia Policy Explained: Bend or Break, Expect Change.World Financial Review, 56-59.

Sommers, J. W., & Koltashov, V. (2016) Russia, the United States and Ukraine in the Long Economic Crisis: Assessments and Prospects for the Developmental State.International Critical Thought, 6(4), 589-602.

Sommers, J. W., Ferguson, K. , & Petro, P. (2016) Social Democracy and its Discontents: The Rise of Austerity.After Capitalism: Horizons of Finance, Culture, and Citizenship, 91-132. Rutgers University Press.

Sommers, J. W.(2016) The Election: Failing Real Change, Hope Lost.World Financial Review. World Financial Review.

Sommers, J. W., , & (2015) Race, Reality & Realpolitik: US/Haiti Relations in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.200. Lexington Press.

Sommers, J. W.(2015) The U.S. Power Elite and the Political Economy of Haiti’s Occupation: Investment, Race & World Order.L'Occupation 1915-1934: Perspectives on Haiti and the US at the Centennial, special issue of the Journal of Haitian Studies, 21(2), pp. 46-67.

(2015) L'Occupation 1915-1934: Perspectives on Haiti and the US at the Centennial.Sommers, J. W., Saint Jacques, E. , & Bellegarde-Smith, P. D.(Eds). Journal of Haitian Studies.

, & Sommers, J. W.(2015) Austerity and the Demise of Social Europe: The Baltic Model versus the Social Model.Woolfson, C. (Ed). Globalizations.

Sommers, J. W.(2015) Lethal Arms Are Not What Ukraine Needs.The New York Times. New York Times.

Galbraith, J. (2014) Austerity, internal devaluation, and social (in)security in Latvia.Sommers, J. W., & Woolfson, C. (Eds). The Contradictions of Austerity: The Socio-Economic Costs of the Baltic Model. London: Routledge Press.

Sommers, J. W.(2014) The budget 'tool' Gov. Scott Walker should not use.Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Sommers, J. W., Woolfson, C. , & Juskaa, A. (2014) Austerity as a global prescription and lessons from the neoliberal Baltic experiment.Economic & Labour Relations Review, 25(3), pp.1-20.

Sommers, J. W., woolfson, c. , & juuska, a. (2014) Keynote Article, “Austerity as a global prescription and lessons from the neoliberal Baltic experiment.”.Economic & Labour Relations Review, 25:3 , 1-20.