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THOMAS W. WALKER is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Director Emeritus of Latin American Studies at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University and an M.A. (Latin American Studies) and Ph.D. (Political Science) from the University of New Mexico.

Walker teaches courses on “The Government and Politics of Latin America,” “Revolution in Latin America,” and “Latin American Political Thought.”

Walker is both a Brazilianist and a Central Americanist. He did his dissertation research in Brazil and has published a couple of articles and one book about politics in that country: (with Agnaldo Sousa Barbosa) Dos Coroneis a Metropole: Fios e Tramas da Sociedade e da Politica em Ribeirao Preto no Seculo 20 (Palavra Magica, 2000). Regarding Central America, he is the author of The Christian Democratic Movement in Nicaragua (University of Arizona Press, 1970) and Nicaragua: The Land of Sandino (Westview, 1981, 1986, 1991, 2003 [new subtitle: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle]) and a number of articles, chapters, and so forth. He is also the co-author (with John A. Booth) of Understanding Central America (Westview, 1989, 1993, 1999) which with a third co-author, Christine Wade, came out in a fourth edition in 2006 with the subtitle, Global Forces, Rebelion, and Change; the editor/co-author of Nicaragua in Revolution (Praeger, 1982), Nicaragua: The First Five Years (Praeger, 1985), Reagan Versus the Sandinistas: The Undeclared War on Nicaragua (Westview, 1987), Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaragua (Westview, 1991), and Nicaragua Without Illusions: Regime Transition and Structural Adjustment in the 1990s (Scholarly Resources, 1997); and co-editor/co-author (with Sung Ho Kim) of Perspectives on War and Peace in Central America (Ohio University Press, 1992 ) and (with Ariel C. Armony) of Repression, Resistance and Democratic Transition in Central America (Scholarly Resources, 2000).

In 1982/1983 Walker served on the national Central American Task Force of the United Presbyterian Church’s Council on Church and Society. In 1983/1984, he was founding co-chair of The Latin American Studies Association’s (LASA’s) Task Force on Scholarly Relations with Nicaragua (now expanded to Central America as a whole). In 1984, 1989/90, and 1996, he served on international delegations that observed Nicaragua’s national elections. With those experiences, he was later invited to be part of the Carter Center's teams which observed the 2004 presidential recall referendum in Venezuela and the 2006 National elections in Nicaragua. Walker has delivered over 175 guest lectures at institutions of higher education around the United States, Latin America, and Europe.

Dr. Walker, far right, with son Carlos and Jimmy Carter observing elections withthe Carter Center in Nicaragua, 2006.