11/2011 - 10/2014: Acting Director of the GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies
2007/2008: Guest Lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin, SFB 700 "Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood"
2007: Visiting Scholar at Nuffield College, Oxford University
Since 2006: Deputy to the Director, Institute of Latin American Studies
Since 2003: Senior Researcher at the GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies
2003: Doctorate (Dr. rer. pol., summa cum laude) at the Political Science department of the Freie Universität Berlin; Doctoral Thesis on "The Politics of the Internet in Third World Development"
1998 - 2003: Lecturer at the Latin American Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin
1998: Research Scholarship by the Instituto Rio Branco (Brasilia)
1993 - 1998: Researcher at the Institute for Ibero-American Studies, Hamburg
Political Science studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Íconos - Revista de Ciencias Sociales, Associate Editor of "Íconos - Revista de Ciencias Sociales", since 2025
Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS), Appointed member of the Board of Trustees ("Kuratorium"), 2024 - 2026
Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS) of Heidelberg University, 2023 - 2026
Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, The University of the West Indies (SALISES), Honorary Research Fellow, 2023 - 2025
European Council for Social Research on Latin America (CEISAL), CEISAL - Consejo de Investigaciones Sociales de América Latina en Europa; member of the Comisión Directiva, 2022 - 2028
Prof. Dr. Bert Hoffmann
Lead Research Fellow / Editor GIGA Focus Latin America
Kippt Kuba? Vier Szenarien, wie es auf der Insel weitergehen könnte, nachdem die USA die Ölzufuhr der Insel blockieren. Kann die kubanische Regierung dem Druck standhalten? Wird Russland zur Hilfe kommen? Oder wie könnte eine Verhandlungslösung zwischen Washington und Havanna aussehen?
Trump’s ultra-aggressive claim to South America as the United States’ exclusive zone of influence changes the region’s political coordinates. The GIGA analyses the ongoing stand-off in Venezuela, the role of China, Latin America’s upcoming elections, and other key events and trends to watch in 2026.
In Latin American studies, the non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean remains off the radar. It is time to rethink this marginalisation of the closest of neighbours. While terms such as "LAC countries" have become standard, the Caribbean should be more than an added "C" to the acronym.
Trump’s disruptive policies could inadvertently provide the impetus to bring Europe and Latin America closer together. With smart policies, the incoming German government can leverage shared interests for a renewed partnership.
Diagnostic capacity played a crucial role in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing the experience of Latin America, the article shows that success depends on supra-national cooperation of which the existent influenza or dengue networks in the region are prime examples.
Among Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, highly treatable diseases such as syphilis have become a major health concern, with particularly serious risks for pregnant women and infants. Medical treatment faces the challenges of how to reach out to the migrants in often precarious legal and material situations. The project will explore effective ways to provide adequate prevention and health care measures for the at-risk population in the context of these obstacles. GIZ, 2022-2023
After highly successful five years, the multi-disciplinary „German-Latin American Centre of Infection & Epidemiology Research and Training“ (GLACIER) has been awarded another five years of funding to continue its work in the period 2026-2030. GIGA will continue its cooperation with the Universidad de Costa Rica, with a new research project on health provision to migrants in Central America and Colombia. Funded by the DAAD with funds from German Federal Foreign Office.
The EU and Cuba signed a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) in 2016 to open a new stage of constructive engagement. The Europe-Cuba Forum is a Jean Monnet network project shich brings together leading scholars from Europe and Cuba to analyse the prospects, possibilities and limitations for such cooperation, highlighting the economic reform agenda, social policies and governance questions. EC, Erasmus+, 2018-2022
Few political transformations have attacked social inequalities more thoroughly than the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The research project addresses to what extent and through what mechanisms structural inequalities have been returning in recent years which echo Cuba’s pre-revolutionary socio-ethnic hierarchies. To this end, a unique nationwide survey with more than one thousand respondents is carried out. As access to hard currency becomes key, racialized migration patterns of the past make for highly unequal access to family remittances, and also the gradual opening of private business disfavors Afro-Cubans. DFG, 2016-2021
Media Contributions
Die ZEIT - Podcast "Das Politikteil" | Interview | 27/03/2026
Blackouts, Versorgungsengpässe, Hunger: Das von den USA verhängte Ölembargo lastet schwer auf Kuba. Ist das Ende Kubas, wie wir es kennen, in Sicht? Einstündiges Interview mit GIGA-Experte Prof. Dr. Bert Hoffmann.
Süddeutsche Zeitung Podcast "Auf den Punkt" | Quote | 26/03/2026
Spanischsprachiger Artikel der Deutschen Welle zu einer etwaigen militärischen Konfrontation zwischen den USA und Kuba mit Einschätzungen des GIGA-Experten Prof. Dr. Bert Hoffmann.
Lectures
University of Costa Rica (UCR) | 30/10/2025
Mosquitos y Colonialismo. Una Historia Ecológica de tres Siglos de Política Global
Organiser: University of Costa Rica (UCR)
Prof. Dr. Bert Hoffmann (Speaker)
Infectious diseases were much more crucial for colonial politics than our history books admit. Assymetric immunity to yellow fever and malaria explains, for instance, why the British, in spite of their superior naval forces, never conquered South America.
Organiser: University of Guadalajara
Prof. Dr. Bert Hoffmann (Speaker)
Ecological studies also includes the world of viruses and bacteria - and these have had a crucial impact on the history of European colonization of the Americas throughout the centuries.
Lead Research Fellow / Editor GIGA Focus Latin America
Conference | 11/06/2025
Latin American Studies: Present Problems and Future Perspectives
JLAS-UCL Americas Annual Lecture, Bentham House, UCL, London
Organisers: UCL Institute of the Americas, University College London
Prof. Dr. Bert Hoffmann (Speaker)
