Dr. J. Salvador Peralta is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of West Georgia. He teaches courses on American Politics, Democratization, and Latin American Politics. His current research explores presidential behavior, social investment policies, higher education politics, and the intersection between poetry and politics in Latin America.
His most recent publications have appeared in PS: Political Science and Politics, Politics & Policy; as chapters in Underpinning Leadership: The Presidential Office in Latin America, USA, and Spain; and The International Politics of Higher Education, from Tecnos and Routledge respectively; as well as an Interview with Claribel Alegría, in the Birmingham Poetry Review. He received a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) grant to develop a course on what it means to be free. A native of Nicaragua, Peralta immigrated to the United States in 1985 and became a U.S. citizen in 1997. His experiences living through dictatorship and war, and emigrating to the U.S. in search of freedom have inspired his scholarly and teaching interests. He is married with three children and lives in Carrollton, GA.