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Healy Tapped to Direct Center

Robert G. Healy, a professor of environmental policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment, has been named the new director of Duke's Center for North American Studies.

The center, created in 1997, is believed to be the only center at a major United States university that deals with Canada, Mexico and the U.S. as a single, increasingly connected region. The center's interdisciplinary faculty comes from such diverse departments as history, political science, Romance studies, sociology, economics and several professional schools. Areas of interest include regional political economy, environment, labor, migration, communications and regional, national and sub-national identities.

Healy, who officially becomes director on July 1, has taught at Duke since 1986. He is a member of the vice provost's International Affairs Committee and has previously directed Duke's Center for International Studies.

Healy said the relationship among the three countries has changed since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

"But NAFTA is only the most visible sign of a general tendency toward increasing flows of trade, people and investment among the three countries," Healy added. "We see some of the results here in North Carolina - the fastest-growing Hispanic population in the U.S., substantial trade with both Canada and Mexico, Canadian firms like Nortel expanding in the Triangle and North Carolina firms like Burlington Industries making major investments in Mexico.

"Explaining many of the recent changes requires drawing from several disciplines. There are wonderful new topics for faculty and graduate student research, and for new classes that can get undergraduates interested. The idea of 'North America' can stimulate intellectual life at Duke in some exciting new directions."

Healy, who earned a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA, worked for many years for environmental organizations in Washington, including Resources for the Future and the World Wildlife Fund. He's also an active participant in the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies and in the Center for International Development Research, part of Duke's Sanford Institute for Public Policy.

Healy first visited Mexico as a college student, and said he soon became fascinated by its history, culture, language and economy. He has returned many times as both as a tourist and researcher. "Mexico is one of the world's great cultures, and one with an increasing interpenetration with that of the United States," Healy said.

He also has a growing interest in Canada, piqued in part by his participation in a 1996 forestry tour sponsored by the Canadian Consulate General in Atlanta. On his first sabbatical after the forestry tour, he taught part of the year at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City and part of the year at McGill University in Montreal.

"I developed a new course on national parks and local development, first in Mexico, then at McGill, and now I teach it every fall at Duke," Healy said.

Healy succeeds Frederick Mayer, associate professor of public policy studies, as director. The center is housed in a building on Campus Drive, and the flags of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. fly above the building's entrance every day.