A historian of the global United States and modern Cuba, Dr. Latner’s research engages four broad fields: American foreign relations and diplomatic history, modern American history, African American history, and Cuban Studies, with interdisciplinary interests that span radicalism, ethnic studies, political economy, race and identity, and political theory. Dr. Latner’s scholarship focusses on U.S.–Cuba relations, especially the influence of the Cuban Revolution on American life and politics during the Cold War and its afterlife, and the engagement of North Americans with Cuba, especially the social protest movements of the 1960s era and the Black freedom struggle.

Latner’s first book, Cuban Revolution in America: Havana and the Making of a United States Left, 1968-1992, was published by University of North Carolina Press for the Justice, Power, and Politics book series. Dr. Latner’s research related to Cuba has garnered mention in news outlets such as the BBC, the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Washington Post. Dr. Latner’s current book project is a biography of an American political exile who has lived in Cuba since 1971.

Latner was a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University’s Center for the United States and the Cold War (2014), and a Research Associate at the Center for Black Studies Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2015). His scholarship has been supported by research grants from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the UC-Cuba Academic Initiative, and Thomas Jefferson University, among others.

At Thomas Jefferson University, Professor Latner enjoys teaching a wide variety of subjects in American History and Global Studies through courses such as Topics in American Studies, The Global Economy, Environmental Justice in America, and Capitalism and Socialism in a Global Perspective. Prior to coming to Jefferson, Dr. Latner taught at California State University, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Los Angeles.