Center for the Americas

Caribbean Studies Minor

The Center for the Americas, in conjunction with faculty across campus who teach courses that fall within the category of Caribbean Studies, sponsors a Caribbean Studies minor. The Director of the Center for the Americas serves as the administrator for minor certification.

The site of Columbus’s first landing and the hemisphere’s first Iberian settlement, what we now call the Caribbean is temporally, geographically, and historically at the center of the Americas. Colonized by Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United States, populated by streams of labor from Africa and Asia, as well as by peoples from Europe and the Middle East, the Caribbean has extraordinary diversity in its people, languages, and cultures. It is a microcosm of contemporary global problematics: immigrant, indigenous, settler and diasporic communities negotiating their current status as polities while preserving individual pasts and identities.

The Caribbean Studies minor at Wesleyan focuses upon aspects of this region. It draws upon faculty and curricula from many departments and programs at Wesleyan: American Studies, Latin American Studies, African American Studies, College of Letters, Anthropology, English, Religious Studies, and Music among them. It is by its diverse nature constituted as always multidisciplinary

Minor Requirements

The minor in Caribbean studies consists of five credits.

AMST200 is required as a foundation course for the minor.
The four additional courses may be drawn from courses that fall within the category of Caribbean studies. The Caribbean studies courses in Wesleyan’s curriculum from 2013–14 to 2018–19 are listed here; the listing will be updated annually.

2018-2019 Courses
AMST200	Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas	1
AMST206	Junior Colloquium: New England and Empire	1
AMST225	Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies	1
AMST226	20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity	1
AMST245	Personalizing History	1
AMST273	Diasporic South Asian Writing and American Studies	1
AMST296	Precarity in America	1
AMST391	Religion and the Social Construction of Race	1
LAST226	Spanish American Literature and Civilization	1
LAST245	Modern Latin America Since 1810	1
LAST254	Tales of Resistance: Modernity and the Latin American Short Story	1
LAST296	Colonial Latin America	1
AFAM203	African American History, 1444-1877	1
ENGL274	Caribbean Poetry and Cinema: "Fields of Islands" in an Open Sea	1
ENGL279	Introduction to Latina/o/x Literature and Art: Border, Citizen, Body	1
ANTH210	Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism	1
2017-2018 Courses
AMST200	Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas
AMST206	Junior Colloquium: New England and Empire ^*
AMST302	Lyric Poetry and Music: The Color and Politics of Cry, Sound, and Voice ^*
AMST391	Religion and the Social Construction of Race ^*
LAST226	Spanish American Literature and Civilization ^*
LAST245	Modern Latin America Since 1810 ^*
LAST302	Latin American Politics ^*
LAST265	Multilingual Aesthetics in Latin America ^*
LAST292	Spanish American 'Modernismo' in a Global Context ^*
LAST296	Colonial Latin America ^*
LAST306	Liberation Theology and Pentecostalism in the Americas and Africa ^*
AFAM203	African American History, 1444-1877 ^*
COL225	20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity
ENGL231	Contemporary Puerto Rican Art and Literature
ENGL328	Brown, Black, and Queer Forms and Feelings ^*
2016-2017 Courses
AMST200	Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas
AMST225	Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies ^*
AMST391	Religion and the Social Construction of Race
AMST247	Caribbean Writers in the U.S. Diaspora
LAST245	Modern Latin America Since 1810 ^*
LAST252	Race and Nation in Latin America ^*
LAST254	Tales of Resistance: Modernity and the Latin American Short Story ^*
LAST302	Latin American Politics ^*
ANTH165	Between Journalism and Anthropology
ANTH399	Rereading Gendered Agency: Black Women's Experience of Slavery ^*
AFAM203	African American History, 1444-1877 ^*
SPAN272	Cubanidad: Diaspora, Exiles, and Cultural Identity in Cuban Literature and Film
FGSS204	Latina Historical Narratives (FGSS Gateway) ^*
2015-2016 Courses
AMST225	Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies ^*
AMST273	Diasporic South Asian Writing and American Studies ^*
ENGL279	Introduction to Latina/o/x Literature and Art: Border, Citizen, Body ^*
AMST306	Historicizing Latina/os
AMST329	Issues in Latina/o Politics and Culture ^*
LAST241	Asian Latino Encounters: Imagining Asia in Hispanic America ^*
LAST245	Modern Latin America Since 1810 ^*
LAST226	Spanish American Literature and Civilization ^*
LAST268	Anthropology of Black Religions in the Americas
LAST281	"Islas sonantes": Music and Sound Technologies in Hispanic Caribbean Literature
ANTH210	Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism
AFAM203	African American History, 1444-1877 ^*
ENGL328	Brown, Black, and Queer Forms and Feelings ^*
2014-2015 Courses
AMST225	Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies ^*
AMST302	Lyric Poetry and Music: The Color and Politics of Cry, Sound, and Voice ^*
AMST352	Diaspora, Border, Migration: Contemporary Latina/o Politics and Culture ^*
AMST391	Religion and the Social Construction of Race
LAST226	Spanish American Literature and Civilization ^*
LAST245	Modern Latin America Since 1810 ^*
LAST268	Anthropology of Black Religions in the Americas
AFAM203	African American History, 1444-1877 ^*
ANTH210	Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism
ANTH201	Key Issues in Black Feminism (FGSS Gateway) ^*
COL225	20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity
ENGL274	Caribbean Poetry and Cinema: "Fields of Islands" in an Open Sea
2013-2014 Courses
AMST225	Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies ^*
AMST247	Caribbean Writers in the U.S. Diaspora
ENGL279	Introduction to Latina/o/x Literature and Art: Border, Citizen, Body ^*
AMST352	Diaspora, Border, Migration: Contemporary Latina/o Politics and Culture ^*
LAST226	Spanish American Literature and Civilization ^*
LAST245	Modern Latin America Since 1810 ^*
LAST296	Colonial Latin America ^*
LAST302	Latin American Politics ^*
AFAM203	African American History, 1444-1877 ^*
ANTH201	Key Issues in Black Feminism (FGSS Gateway) ^*
ANTH210	Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism
ENGL141F	Slavery, Latifundio, and Revolution in Latin American Literature and Cinema (FYS)
ENGL215	Place, Belonging, and Sound in the 20th c. Latina/o/x, Black, & Caribbean Imaginations--NYC

While a specific distribution of the four electives across disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields is not required, no more than three courses in a single disciplinary field may be counted for the minor. Those courses on the list that are marked with asterisks are not primarily focused on the Caribbean but include it in a broader hemispheric context or transnational perspective. Students including asterisked courses in their minor are asked to focus paper topics or research projects on the Caribbean if that is an option in the course. No more than two asterisked courses may be counted among a student’s four electives. A student counting two asterisked courses must submit evidence of a paper or research project with a Caribbean focus for at least one of the two courses.

No more than one 100-level course may be counted for the minor.
While there is no general GPA requirement to declare or remain in the minor, a grade of B or better is required for all courses counted for the minor.
Students who study abroad in the Caribbean (or elsewhere) would be allowed to count two courses for the minor so long as the courses are focused within Caribbean studies. To be counted for the minor, study-abroad courses have to be approved by the Director of the Center for the Americas.

Center for the Americas

Caribbean Studies Minor

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