Professor Helen Yaffe

  • Professor of Latin American Political Economy (Political & International Studies)

Biography

I joined the University of Glasgow as Lecturer in Economic and Social History in January 2018 after previously teaching in Economic History at the London School of Economics, in History at the University College London and in Development Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. My teaching focuses on Latin American and Cuban development. At the LSE, I taught the history of economics and the political economy of late development. In 2011, I joined the Geography Department at the University of Leicester as a Research Associate to work with Professor Gavin Brown on the Leverhulme-funded project Non-Stop Against Apartheid: the spaces of transnational solidarity. The project examined the history and geography of the Non-Stop Picket maintained between 1986 and 1990 by the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group outside the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square opposing apartheid and calling for the release of Nelson Mandela.  Our book, Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-stop Picket Against Apartheid, was published in 2017.

 

Since 1995 (as a teenager), I have spent time living and researching in Cuba. My doctoral thesis, undertaken at the LSE, was adapted for publication as Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009. I have continued to research and publish on Cuban development. My new book We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World, is due for publication by Yale University Press in February 2020.

Research interests

  • Cuban development (including developments in medical science/biotechnology, energy and ecology, sustainable development, education, science and technology)
  • Economic history of Cuba
  • Latin American development
  • Latin American regionalism
  • Socialist political economy

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2015 | 2014
Number of items: 21.

2024

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2024) ¡Somos Cuba! Cómo un pueblo revolucionario ha sobrevivido en un mundo postsoviético. Ruth Casa Editorial. ISBN 9789590624568

2023

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) Cuban medical internationalism: A paradigm for south–south cooperation. International Journal of Cuban Studies, 15(2), pp. 203-234. (doi: 10.13169/intejcubastud.15.2.0203)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) Che as Minister: the promotion of science and technology for Cuba’s socialist development. Globalizations, 20(8), pp. 1490-1507. (doi: 10.1080/14747731.2022.2111078)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) The US blockade, and the “1 cent 4 Cuba” campaign to challenge it. International Journal of Cuban Studies, 14(2), pp. 207-213. (doi: 10.13169/intejcubastud.14.2.0207)

Acosta, Daniesky, Rivalta, Hugo, Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 and Rivalta, Laura (2023) Cuban Bees: The Organic Revolution. [Film]

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) Tarea Vida: Cuba’s state plan to confront climate change. In: Bastian, Hope, Brenner, Philip, Kirk, John M. and Leogrande, William M. (eds.) Contemporary Cuba: The Post-Castro Era. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, Maryland, pp. 319-328. ISBN 9781538177136

2022

Acosta, Daniesky, Rivalta, Hugo, Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 and Rivalta, Laura (2022) Cuba’s Life Task: Combatting Climate Change. [Film]

2021

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) US sanctions Cuba ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government’. In: Davis, Stuart and Ness, Immanuel (eds.) Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy. Series: Studies in Critical Social Sciences (212). Brill: Leiden, pp. 129-147. ISBN 9789004501195 (doi: 10.1163/9789004501201_009)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) Cuba’s Tarea Vida: sustainable development and combating climate change. In: Kirk, Emily J., Story, Isabel and Clayfield, Anna (eds.) Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba: Adaptation and Management. Lexington Books: Lanham, MD, pp. 127-146. ISBN 9781793651310

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) The quest for energy alternatives in post-1959 Cuba. In: Kirk, Emily J., Story, Isabel and Clayfield, Anna (eds.) Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba: Adaptation and Management. Series: Lexington Studies on Cuba. Lexington Books: Lanham, MD. ISBN 9781793651310

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) 11 July Protests in Cuba: A personal narrative of events. In: LeoGrande, William M., Kirk, John M. and Brenner, Philip (eds.) The Road Ahead: Cuba After the July 11 Protests. American University: Washington, USA.

2020

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2020) Cuba and COVID-19: Public Health, Science and Solidarity. [Audio]

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2020) We Are Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World. Yale University Press: New Haven. ISBN 9780300230031 (doi: 10.2307/j.ctvwcjfc4)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2020) Cuba - Sul filo del rasoio tra lo Stato e il mercato. In: Califano, Andrea (ed.) In bilico. Quale democrazia per l'America Latina? Autoritarismo e ricerca di alternative radicali. Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli: Milan, pp. 100-111. ISBN 9788868353759

2019

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2019) The curious case of Cuba's biotech revolution. In: Inkster, Ian (ed.) History of Technology Volume 34. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781350085596

2018

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2018) Venezuela, ALBA, and the communal economic system. In: Cusak, Asa K. (ed.) Understanding ALBA: Progress, Problems, and Prospects of Alternative Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Institute of Latin American Studies: London. ISBN 9781908857224

Brown, Gavin and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2018) Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-stop Picket Against Apartheid. Series: Routledge spaces of childhood and youth series. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY. ISBN 9781138828865

2017

Domínguez López, Ernesto and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2017) The deep, historical roots of Cuban anti imperialism. Third World Quarterly, 38(11), pp. 2517-2535. (doi: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1374171)

2015

Brown, Gavin and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2015) Young people's engagement with the geopolitics of anti-apartheid solidarity in 1980s' London. In: Benwell, Matthew C. and Hopkins, Peter (eds.) Children, Young People and Critical Geopolitics. Series: Critical geopolitics. Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey, pp. 155-168. ISBN 9781472444936

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2015) Venezuela: building a socialist communal economy? International Critical Thought, 5(1), pp. 23-41. (doi: 10.1080/21598282.2014.996178)

2014

Brown, Gavin and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2014) Practices of solidarity: opposing Apartheid in the Centre of London. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 46(1), pp. 34-52. (doi: 10.1111/anti.12037)

This list was generated on Sat Nov 8 09:40:02 2025 GMT.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Audio | Film
Number of items: 21.

Articles

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) Cuban medical internationalism: A paradigm for south–south cooperation. International Journal of Cuban Studies, 15(2), pp. 203-234. (doi: 10.13169/intejcubastud.15.2.0203)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) Che as Minister: the promotion of science and technology for Cuba’s socialist development. Globalizations, 20(8), pp. 1490-1507. (doi: 10.1080/14747731.2022.2111078)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) The US blockade, and the “1 cent 4 Cuba” campaign to challenge it. International Journal of Cuban Studies, 14(2), pp. 207-213. (doi: 10.13169/intejcubastud.14.2.0207)

Domínguez López, Ernesto and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2017) The deep, historical roots of Cuban anti imperialism. Third World Quarterly, 38(11), pp. 2517-2535. (doi: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1374171)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2015) Venezuela: building a socialist communal economy? International Critical Thought, 5(1), pp. 23-41. (doi: 10.1080/21598282.2014.996178)

Brown, Gavin and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2014) Practices of solidarity: opposing Apartheid in the Centre of London. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 46(1), pp. 34-52. (doi: 10.1111/anti.12037)

Books

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2024) ¡Somos Cuba! Cómo un pueblo revolucionario ha sobrevivido en un mundo postsoviético. Ruth Casa Editorial. ISBN 9789590624568

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2020) We Are Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World. Yale University Press: New Haven. ISBN 9780300230031 (doi: 10.2307/j.ctvwcjfc4)

Brown, Gavin and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2018) Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-stop Picket Against Apartheid. Series: Routledge spaces of childhood and youth series. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY. ISBN 9781138828865

Book Sections

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2023) Tarea Vida: Cuba’s state plan to confront climate change. In: Bastian, Hope, Brenner, Philip, Kirk, John M. and Leogrande, William M. (eds.) Contemporary Cuba: The Post-Castro Era. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, Maryland, pp. 319-328. ISBN 9781538177136

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) US sanctions Cuba ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the government’. In: Davis, Stuart and Ness, Immanuel (eds.) Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy. Series: Studies in Critical Social Sciences (212). Brill: Leiden, pp. 129-147. ISBN 9789004501195 (doi: 10.1163/9789004501201_009)

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) Cuba’s Tarea Vida: sustainable development and combating climate change. In: Kirk, Emily J., Story, Isabel and Clayfield, Anna (eds.) Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba: Adaptation and Management. Lexington Books: Lanham, MD, pp. 127-146. ISBN 9781793651310

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) The quest for energy alternatives in post-1959 Cuba. In: Kirk, Emily J., Story, Isabel and Clayfield, Anna (eds.) Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change in Cuba: Adaptation and Management. Series: Lexington Studies on Cuba. Lexington Books: Lanham, MD. ISBN 9781793651310

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2021) 11 July Protests in Cuba: A personal narrative of events. In: LeoGrande, William M., Kirk, John M. and Brenner, Philip (eds.) The Road Ahead: Cuba After the July 11 Protests. American University: Washington, USA.

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2020) Cuba - Sul filo del rasoio tra lo Stato e il mercato. In: Califano, Andrea (ed.) In bilico. Quale democrazia per l'America Latina? Autoritarismo e ricerca di alternative radicali. Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli: Milan, pp. 100-111. ISBN 9788868353759

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2019) The curious case of Cuba's biotech revolution. In: Inkster, Ian (ed.) History of Technology Volume 34. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781350085596

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2018) Venezuela, ALBA, and the communal economic system. In: Cusak, Asa K. (ed.) Understanding ALBA: Progress, Problems, and Prospects of Alternative Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Institute of Latin American Studies: London. ISBN 9781908857224

Brown, Gavin and Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2015) Young people's engagement with the geopolitics of anti-apartheid solidarity in 1980s' London. In: Benwell, Matthew C. and Hopkins, Peter (eds.) Children, Young People and Critical Geopolitics. Series: Critical geopolitics. Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey, pp. 155-168. ISBN 9781472444936

Audio

Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 (2020) Cuba and COVID-19: Public Health, Science and Solidarity. [Audio]

Film

Acosta, Daniesky, Rivalta, Hugo, Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 and Rivalta, Laura (2023) Cuban Bees: The Organic Revolution. [Film]

Acosta, Daniesky, Rivalta, Hugo, Yaffe, Helen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-4160 and Rivalta, Laura (2022) Cuba’s Life Task: Combatting Climate Change. [Film]

This list was generated on Sat Nov 8 09:40:02 2025 GMT.

Supervision

I am happy to supervise PhDs in the following areas:

  • Cuban History
  • Political economy of development
  • Latin American development
  • Latin American regionalism
  • Socialist political economy

 

Current Supervision:

Jade Saab ‘Violence in Socialist Revolutions and the Centralization of Governance’

Teaching

Undergraduate

Level 1

  • Economic & Social History 1A: Towards globalisation, 1750-1914
  • Economic & Social History 1B: Towards globalisation, 1914-2008

Honours

  • Latin America in the 20th Century
  • Cuba: Resilient Revolution

Postgraduate

  • Latin American Development: from independence to the present
  • The Globalised Economy
  • Business in the Global Economy