Grenadan grad student brings int'l approach to Poli Sci

Doctoral candidate Bryan Coutain draws on his unique Caribbean American background to teach political science. Growing up in Grenada, the smallest sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere and site of a 1983 U.S. invasion which toppled the island's Marxist government, School of Arts and Sciences graduate student Bryan Coutain got a chance to learn first-hand about the importance of international politics. And although Coutain did not have the chance to attend a regular school until he moved to the United States at the age of 13, the 29-year-old doctoral candidate has now dedicated his life to studying the intricacies of international relations. "I think he knows more than any other professor I've had in this school," said College senior Chad Pimentel, a student in Coutain's undergraduate Political Science seminar. Although Coutain said he is proud to be an American citizen, his Caribbean heritage continues to be important in both his life and his work in the University's Political Science Department. "I think he draws a lot from his cultural background," said Susan Lo, a College senior also enrolled in Coutain's seminar, entitled "Distributive Conflicts in the International Economy." Coutain did not have the opportunity to attend formal schooling during his early childhood, as he spent his pre-teen years with his grandmother and extended family on a farm in Grenada, where he worked full-timeto support them. Even at a young age, however, Coutain said he understood the importance of what he calls "linkage to the international economy." As a young boy he envisioned himself having his own business in a field such as tourism or real estate rental. Coutain's plans changed though, when he moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., at the age of 13 to live with his mother and attend public high school there. Coutain remembers experiencing "a culture shock of momentous proportion" in his new home. After growing up in a "small village that was really a community," it was hard for Coutain to adjust to life in New York City. Although he didn't feel discriminated against, Coutain was surprised at the level of ignorance of many Americans about life in the island nations in the Caribbean Sea. "I don't know if it was stereotypes or just people's stupidity," he said. Either way, Coutain described experiencing an emotional "civil war" in which he felt torn between his Caribbean heritage and his new identity as an American. He admitted that he had an "idealized version of the Caribbean and didn't know about the exploitation that goes on." When he graduated from high school and began attending Hofstra University on Long Island, Coutain met more people from the Caribbean and started talking about the region on an intellectual level. He was very involved in student government and became the director of political affairs for the African Caribbean Society. This office afforded Coutain the opportunity to invite Eugene Pursoo, the then-Grenadan ambassador to the United Nations, to Hofstra for a guest lecture. He said the ambassador became a father figure for him and has had a huge impact on his success. "He came, we talked, and we were almost identical twins in the way we looked at things in the Caribbean," Coutain recalled. Coutain visited Pursoo often at the U.N., where he met other top officials. After graduating from Hofstra with a dual degree in political science and history, Coutain applied to Penn where he hoped to earn a master's degree in political science and then go on to law school. But when he applied, the Political Science Department offered him a special fellowship to earn his doctorate at no cost. In addition to his teaching duties, Coutain is currently writing his doctoral thesis, entitled "Bilateralism Really Matters: the International Political Economy of Domestic Labor and Environmental Regulations." Coutain said he hopes the paper will "make a contribution to the field of political writing" by exploring the way in which nations make international agreements with each other. In the future, Coutain said he hopes to teach political science at a public university. "He's very enthusiastic about his work and anxious to become a better teacher," said College senior Lisa Palladino.