Partial view of the "Museo Sin Techo" or Museum without a Roof in San Juan, Puerto Rico (demolished) where, faced with the process of "Disneyfication" of the old walled city, local artist claimed a contestatorial space of anti-colonial affirmation.
For the past five hundred years the Caribbean archipelago has been one of the most active contact zones in the world. That broad and open space of exchange that straddles two oceans and both hemispheres, bringing together the peoples of four continents, is the site where the enterprise of European conquest and Christianization gave rise to a loose array of alternative practices and aesthetic notions that challenge the hegemonic discourses of the North Atlantic world. The University at Buffalo’s Master’s in Caribbean Cultural Studies program provides students unique opportunities to gain first-hand knowledge of the history, cultures, and intellectual traditions of the Caribbean and the Insular Atlantic world, including its émigré populations in North America and Europe. This one-of-a-kind program is supported through dynamic partnerships with the Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos (EEHA) in Seville, Spain, the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY) in Mérida, Mexico, and the Universidad de La Habana (UH), Cuba. Participants in this unique two-year program will have the rare opportunity to spend two of four semesters studying outside of the United States on both sides of the Atlantic, the first in Mérida and the second in Seville.
Opportunities for study elsewhere in the Caribbean, including Cuba, are also available.
Discover a boundless geography of possibility
The great Caribbean thinker Antonio Benítez Rojo charted the geography of what he called a New Atlantis, pointing out that "recently the referential base of this [Antillean] discourse has expanded to include continental territories with Caribbean coasts, as well as to study the entire sociocultural phenomenon of the area from the point of view of the Creole or creolization." The geographic and historical panorama he promoted included not just the Antilles and their continental hinterlands but the entire meta-archipelago that includes the islands of the tropical and sub-tropical Atlantic: "Much has been written about these islands, but I know of no work that has studied them in depth as a group, that is, from the perspective of the historical, socioeconomic, and cultural links within this vast territory that includes Anguilla. Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Azores, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bioko (formerly Fernando Póo), the British Virgin Islands, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadalupe, Haiti, Jamaica, the Madeira Islands, Martinique, Montserrat, the Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Helena and Ascension, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Andrés and Providencia, Sáo Tomé and Príncipe, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Virgin Islands of the United States." (Antonio Benítez Rojo, The New Atlantis: The Ultimate Caribbean Archipelago)
Enroll in an exciting and unique program
Designed to prepare qualified candidates for doctoral programs and advanced research in a variety of disciplines in the Liberal Arts, the Master’s in Caribbean Cultural Studies is a rigorous academic program that trains students for fieldwork and archival research.
Following an initial semester in Buffalo, participants will travel to Mérida de Yucatán, México. That semester begins with a two-week study tour of Yucatán, Belize and the Gulf of Honduras, traveling through the modern Mayab world and visiting the communities of the Black Caribs or Garifuna people. A third semester in Seville, Spain, will include a one-week study tour of the Canary Islands in advance of three full months of intensive archival research and translation of primary sources and documents in the renowned Archive of the Indies (AGI). The fourth and final semester in Buffalo will be devoted to work on the master's thesis.
Our students have the flexibility to develop their own research specializations as they prepare their final theses/projects. These may include papers on history, politics, philosophy, cultural studies and policy, as well as archaeological and anthropological fieldwork, documentary filmmaking, performances, artwork, and works of creative writing. Graduates will be ideal candidates for doctoral programs in a wide range of disciplines including American Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, English, French, History, Political Science, Sociology, Spanish, and for careers in a variety of professional fields such as archival research, government, media, and public policy.
Requirements
Applicants must have earned a minimum of 3.0 GPA during their undergraduate studies. They must be fully literate (reading and writing) in English and Spanish. Non-native speakers of either one of these languages will need to have successfully completed three years of college-level study in the target language or its equivalent. Advanced reading and writing skills in any other indigenous, African, European, or Creole language spoken in the Caribbean and the New Atlantis is strongly preferred.
There are no GRE or TOEFL requirements. But entry is highly competitive and there is limited space every year. We take in students for Fall Entry Only and will not accept applications after March 1st for fall entry in the same year.
If you meet all the above requirements and the following pages convince you that this is the program for you, fill out an application. We will review your application once the following materials are received: application and fee, transcripts, statement of purpose (in English), writing sample (in Spanish) and two letters of recommendation from academics.
Scholarships
The prestigious Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship Program is available to students in our program. We encourage all potential students to visit the Schomburg Fellowship program web site. Should the student meet all specified requirements we accept self-nominations.
How to Contact Us
For more information about the program, fill out our online questionnaire or contact:
Program in Caribbean Studies
712 Clemens Hall
University at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260-4600
(716) 645-3664
caribbean-studies@buffalo.edu