Entrance to the main reading room in the Archive of the Indies in Seville where students will spend most of their time during the third semester of the program.
The Program
Structure
The program was certainly a deciding factor in pushing me to continue my graduate education and pursue a PhD. Currently I am defending my dissertation in the Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S Latin Studies PhD Program at the University at Albany. It is entitled The Honduran Invisibility in the Central American Conflict: 1970s - 80s. Textbooks can only teach you so much and there is nothing better than to live among the people you read about. No other graduate program can provide you with such an unmatched field experience.
Yaser Robles '06
The Master's program is organized in four semesters of fifteen weeks each. Classes during the first semester will be held in Buffalo and they will be geared towards giving students an in-depth overview of Caribbean geography and environment, languages and linguistics, history and politics, philosophy and aesthetics, together with the set of paleographic research skills required to conduct professional work in historical archives.
All students will be on Academic Probation during the first semester. This means that besides fulfilling all the obligations of a rigorous academic program it will be incumbent on the student to demonstrate sufficient emotional maturity and personal integrity, as well as a clear capacity for both group work and independent action, prior to being allowed to continue in the program and proceeding to the two consecutive semesters of study abroad. Regardless of academic performance, failure to demonstrate such qualities and qualifications during the first semester will result in dismissal from the program.
The second semester will be spent taking courses and doing field work at the School of Anthropological Sciences of the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, in Merida, Mexico. It will include a two-week study tour through one of the most complex and multi-layered cultural contact zones in the world. We will visit the sites of the Pre-Columbian Mayan city-states paying particular attention to representative orders and ways of organizing space. We will critically analyze the mechanics of conquest and Christianization set in motion by the Franciscan Order in the Yucatan, as well as the economy and cultures of piracy, contraband and maroon societies during the colonial period and beyond. We will also consider the causes and consequences of the Guerra de Castas (1847-1901), and explore the daily practices and symbolic universe of the mestizo world of the Yucatan. Our trip to Belize will be an important introduction to Garifuna culture, a fascinating and besieged world lying at the intersection of insular and continental boundaries where Arawak and West African traditions pierce through the historical legacy of piracy and the broader geography of the English-speaking Caribbean. There will be a week long visit to Mexico City at mid semster devoted to working full time at the Archivo General de la Nacion.
Students will spend the third semester as fellows of the Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos in Seville, Spain, conducting research, transcription and translation at the Archivo General de Indias, the largest depository of documents relating to the history of the American continent. The semester will include a one-week study tour of the Canary Islands, focusing primarily on guanche history, the culture of the peoples of the sea, cultural variation throughout the archipelago, issues of development and tourism, legal and illegal emigration, citizenship rights, and post-national forms of political reorganization within the context of the Spanish State, the European Union, and what could be envisioned as the great meta-archipelago of the Insular Atlantic world.
The fourth semester will be spent in Buffalo working exclusively on the Master's thesis/project. Students are strongly encouraged to spend one month at the start of the fourth semester doing self-financed independent field work or conducting archival research outside of Buffalo. Research plans will require prior approval from the thesis advisor and the Program Director. With the exception of this initial period of field work/research, all students will be required to reside in Buffalo during the entire duration of the fourth and last semester in the program.
Please note that the program structure has been carefully designed and that students are expected to adhere to it in the most strictest of terms. This means that failure to follow this sequence without interruption of any kind will be grounds for immediate and irrevocable expulsion from the program.
The total minimum amount of credits required for the Master's degree will be 36. Courses will earn 3.0 credit hours each. Following is the credit distribution per semester:
| First Semester | 12 credits (four courses) |
| Second Semester | 12 credits (four courses) |
| Third Semester | 9 credits (three courses) |
| Fourth Semester | 3 credits (one course) |
All courses will have 45 contact hours. They will be divided into required and elective courses.
The following will be required courses in the First Semester (in Buffalo):
Students will be able to choose two electives from a variety of course offerings focusing on the Caribbean and the Atlantic World in any number of departments at UB. Individual course selections will require approval of the student's Graduate Advisor. In those years where the course is offered during the Fall semester, all students will be strongly encouraged to take the North and South Atlantic Core Seminar offered in the History Department.
The following will be required courses in the Second Semester (in Merida):
Students will be able to choose one elective from a variety of course offerings in Merida. (Approval of the Program/Resident Director required).
The following will be required courses in the Third Semester (in Seville):
Fourth Semester (in Buffalo):
- Masters Project Guidance