Gettysburg College Prof. Emelio Betances received the Dominican Republic's National Book Award in the scientific essay category.

The Dominican Ministry of Culture honored Betances, a professor of sociology and Latin American studies, for his book The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America: The Dominican Case in Comparative Perspective.

In granting the award this summer, the ministry lauded the book's rigorous social-science methodology.

In the book, Betances analyzes the particular circumstances that allowed the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic to accommodate the political and social establishment: the Church offered nonpartisan political mediation, rebuilt its ties with the lower echelons of society, and responded to the challenges of the evangelical movement. Betances' historical examination of church-state relations in the Dominican Republic leads to important regional comparisons and a broader understanding of the Church in the whole of Latin America.

In his research, Betances uses the Dominican Republic as a case to reflect on issues of social development, state formation, social movements, and religion and politics.

Betances' other books include State and Society in the Dominican Republic (Westview Press, 1995) and The Dominican Republic Today: Realities and Perspectives, edited with Hobart Spalding and published by the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, 1995.

He has published numerous articles in Latin American Perspectives, Journal of Church and State, NACLA, Caribe Contemporaneo, Revista Mexicana del Caribe, Socialism and Democracy, and other venues.

At Gettysburg College, Betances teaches a variety of courses including Social Development of Latin America, Society and Politics in Latin America, Re-inventing Latin American Societies, Introduction to Sociology, and Introduction to Latin American Studies.

Betances earned his Ph.D. and master's degree at Rutgers University and his bachelor's degree at Adelphi University, all of them in sociology. His doctoral dissertation was The Political Process in the Dominican Republic: The Making of the Dominican Capitalist State, 1844-1924.

Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition that includes Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate and other distinguished scholars among its alumni. The college enrolls 2,600 undergraduate students and is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Contact: Jim Hale, senior staff writer