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
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.
| Course Code | Course Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 | ||
| Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas | ||
| Junior Colloquium: New England and Empire * | ||
| Lyric Poetry and Music: The Color and Politics of Cry, Sound, and Voice * | ||
| Religion and the Social Construction of Race * | ||
| Spanish American Literature and Civilization * | ||
| Modern Latin America Since 1810 * | ||
| Latin American Politics * | ||
| Multilingual Aesthetics in Latin America * | ||
| Spanish American 'Modernismo' in a Global Context * | ||
| Colonial Latin America * | ||
| Liberation Theology and Pentecostalism in the Americas and Africa * | ||
| African American History, 1444-1877 * | ||
| 20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity | ||
| Contemporary Puerto Rican Art and Literature | ||
| Brown, Black, and Queer Forms and Feelings * | ||
| 2016-2017 Courses | ||
| Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas | ||
| Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies * | ||
| Religion and the Social Construction of Race | ||
| Caribbean Writers in the U.S. Diaspora | ||
| Modern Latin America Since 1810 * | ||
| Race and Nation in Latin America * | ||
| Tales of Resistance: Modernity and the Latin American Short Story * | ||
| Latin American Politics * | ||
| Between Journalism and Anthropology | ||
| African American History, 1444-1877 * | ||
| Cubanidad: Diaspora, Exiles, and Cultural Identity in Cuban Literature and Film | ||
| Latina Historical Narratives (FGSS Gateway) * | ||
| 2015-2016 Courses | ||
| Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies * | ||
| Diasporic South Asian Writing and American Studies * | ||
| Introduction to Latina/o/x Literature and Art: Border, Citizen, Body * | ||
| Asian Latino Encounters: Imagining Asia in Hispanic America * | ||
| Modern Latin America Since 1810 * | ||
| Spanish American Literature and Civilization * | ||
| Anthropology of Black Religions in the Americas | ||
| "Islas sonantes": Music and Sound Technologies in Hispanic Caribbean Literature | ||
| Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism | ||
| African American History, 1444-1877 * | ||
| Brown, Black, and Queer Forms and Feelings * | ||
| 2014-2015 Courses | ||
| Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies * | ||
| Lyric Poetry and Music: The Color and Politics of Cry, Sound, and Voice * | ||
| Religion and the Social Construction of Race | ||
| Spanish American Literature and Civilization * | ||
| Modern Latin America Since 1810 * | ||
| Anthropology of Black Religions in the Americas | ||
| African American History, 1444-1877 * | ||
| Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism | ||
| Key Issues in Black Feminism (FGSS Gateway) * | ||
| 20th-Century Franco-Caribbean Literature and the Search for Identity | ||
| Caribbean Poetry and Cinema: "Fields of Islands" in an Open Sea | ||
| 2013-2014 Courses | ||
| Latinidad: Introduction to Latina/o Studies * | ||
| Caribbean Writers in the U.S. Diaspora | ||
| Introduction to Latina/o/x Literature and Art: Border, Citizen, Body * | ||
| Spanish American Literature and Civilization * | ||
| Modern Latin America Since 1810 * | ||
| Colonial Latin America * | ||
| Latin American Politics * | ||
| African American History, 1444-1877 * | ||
| Key Issues in Black Feminism (FGSS Gateway) * | ||
| Haiti: Between Anthropology and Journalism | ||
| Slavery, Latifundio, and Revolution in Latin American Literature and Cinema (FYS) | ||
| 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.
