Dr. Barry B. Levine Sociology Memorial Award
Donation protected
The purpose of this fundraising effort is to commemorate and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Barry B. Levine by helping a student of sociology who not only shows intellectual promise but economic need. The first such award will be given to a student at the University of Puerto Rico from the graduate or undergraduate sociology class of 2021.
Professor Barry B. Levine started his career as a sociologist at the University of Puerto Rico where he served and influenced the lives of colleagues and students between 1965 and 1972. That year he became a founding faculty member of FIU and its Department of Sociology/Anthropology.
He co-founded the prestigious "Caribbean Review " in Puerto Rico in the Spring of 1969 along with his friend, Kal Wagenheim. He continued to edit and produce the magazine at FIU until the summer of 1990. Dr. Levine had a particular sensibility for news and topics and an openness for presenting opposite views, reaching diverse audiences and finding incredible article authors. A highly regarded academic journal with a "breezier" style, Caribbean Review garnered numerous awards, including being a finalist in the National Magazine Award and helped put a fledgeling FIU on the map.
He authored , edited and co-wrote several books including "Problemas de desigualad social en Puerto Rico", "The New Cuban Presence in the Caribbean" , "The Caribbean Exodus", "El desafío neoliberal: el fin del tercermundismo en América Latina" which included top Latin American intellectuals such as Mario Vargas LLosa and Octavio Paz among others. His favorite was "Benjy Lopez" A Picaresque Tale of Emigration and Return" (originally published in 1980 by Basic books and later reissued several times) was based on the life of a friend he met in Puerto Rico. It is a serious sociological study that reads as fiction and aims to dissuade readers from thinking of the Puerto Rican migrant as a victim of circumstances.
Along with Professors Mark Rosenberg, now president of FIU, and Mark Szuchman he co-founded FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC). He was the sociology department's second chairperson 1975-78, a distinguished professor at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and a mentor to many who then went on to distinguish themselves in sociology or as teachers in the educational system. He loved teaching and was loved by his students to whom he taught Sociological Theories, Basic Ideas of Sociology (a course he developed which became a critical course for undergrads at FIU), as well as courses on cultures and globalization. When he retired in 2007 he was given the honor of Professor Emeritus.
Ever the optimist who labeled himself a Weberian, Dr. Levine was partial to the contemporary issues relating to the "clashes and mixes" of migration in the Caribbean and around the globe. Crossing boundaries and crossing intellectual ideas were always at the heart of his writings from "Benjy" to "Caribbean Review". Before his death on August 10, 2020 he had been working on several ideas for books including "Geopants: Who Gets to Make What for Whom" about the impermanence of industry in our ever changing globalized world, which he left 95% finished.
The purpose of this fundraising effort is to commemorate and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Barry B. Levine by helping a student of sociology who not only shows intellectual promise but economic need. The first such award will be given to a student at the University of Puerto Rico from the graduate or undergraduate sociology class of 2021.
Professor Barry B. Levine started his career as a sociologist at the University of Puerto Rico where he served and influenced the lives of colleagues and students between 1965 and 1972. That year he became a founding faculty member of FIU and its Department of Sociology/Anthropology.
He co-founded the prestigious "Caribbean Review " in Puerto Rico in the Spring of 1969 along with his friend, Kal Wagenheim. He continued to edit and produce the magazine at FIU until the summer of 1990. Dr. Levine had a particular sensibility for news and topics and an openness for presenting opposite views, reaching diverse audiences and finding incredible article authors. A highly regarded academic journal with a "breezier" style, Caribbean Review garnered numerous awards, including being a finalist in the National Magazine Award and helped put a fledgeling FIU on the map.
He authored , edited and co-wrote several books including "Problemas de desigualad social en Puerto Rico", "The New Cuban Presence in the Caribbean" , "The Caribbean Exodus", "El desafío neoliberal: el fin del tercermundismo en América Latina" which included top Latin American intellectuals such as Mario Vargas LLosa and Octavio Paz among others. His favorite was "Benjy Lopez" A Picaresque Tale of Emigration and Return" (originally published in 1980 by Basic books and later reissued several times) was based on the life of a friend he met in Puerto Rico. It is a serious sociological study that reads as fiction and aims to dissuade readers from thinking of the Puerto Rican migrant as a victim of circumstances.
Along with Professors Mark Rosenberg, now president of FIU, and Mark Szuchman he co-founded FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC). He was the sociology department's second chairperson 1975-78, a distinguished professor at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and a mentor to many who then went on to distinguish themselves in sociology or as teachers in the educational system. He loved teaching and was loved by his students to whom he taught Sociological Theories, Basic Ideas of Sociology (a course he developed which became a critical course for undergrads at FIU), as well as courses on cultures and globalization. When he retired in 2007 he was given the honor of Professor Emeritus.
Ever the optimist who labeled himself a Weberian, Dr. Levine was partial to the contemporary issues relating to the "clashes and mixes" of migration in the Caribbean and around the globe. Crossing boundaries and crossing intellectual ideas were always at the heart of his writings from "Benjy" to "Caribbean Review". Before his death on August 10, 2020 he had been working on several ideas for books including "Geopants: Who Gets to Make What for Whom" about the impermanence of industry in our ever changing globalized world, which he left 95% finished.
The purpose of this fundraising effort is to commemorate and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Barry B. Levine by helping a student of sociology who not only shows intellectual promise but economic need. The first such award will be given to a student at the University of Puerto Rico from the graduate or undergraduate sociology class of 2021.
Organizer
Rosario Levine
Organizer
Miami, FL