About
CSA
President
Pedro Noguera, New York University [bio]
Immediate Past President
Emilio Pantojas, University of Puerto Rico
Vice President and President Elect
Percy C. Hintzen, University
of California, Berkeley [bio]
Secretary-Treasurer
June Soomer, Eastern Caribbean Development Bank (Acting)
Daphne
Phillips, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (Incoming)
Members of the Executive Council
Raquel Brailowsky Cabrera, Inter American University of Puerto
Rico
JosÈ Seguinot Barbosa, University of Puerto Rico.
Carolle Charles, Baruch College, City University of New York
Christine Ho, Fielding Institute,
Patricia Mohammed, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
Dwaine Plaza, Oregon State University
Frank Mills, University of the Virgin Islands
Newsletter Co-Editors
George Priestley, Queens College, City University of New York
Holger Henke, City College, City University of New York
CSA2005 Conference Program Chair
Kristin Ghodsee, Bowdoin College
CSA2005 Local Chair
Godfrey St. Bernard, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
History
The Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) is an independent professional
organization devoted to the promotion of Caribbean studies from
a multidisciplinary, multicultural point of view. It is the primary
association for scholars and practitioners working on the Caribbean
Region (Including Central America and the Caribbean Coast of
South America). Its members come from throughout the world including
the Caribbean Region, North America, South America, Central America,
and Europe. Founded in 1974 by 300 Caribbeanists, the CSA now
has over 1100 members throughout the world.
The Caribbean Studies Association enjoys non-profit status and
is independent of any public or private institution. Membership
is open to anyone interested in sharing its objectives, regardless
of academic discipline, profession, ideology, place of residence,
ethnic origin, or nationality.
The focus of the CSA is on the Caribbean Basin which includes
Central America, the Caribbean Coast of Mexico, as well as Venezuela,
Columbia, Northeast Brazil and the three Guianas. More than half
of its members are located in the United States, almost exclusively
at U.S. universities and colleges. A significant number are located
in Canada and a few in Europe (particularly Great Britain and Holland.
The Association serves a critical function for scholars providing
one of the only venues for persons working on the Caribbean to
come together to share their work, to engage in collaborative endeavors,
to exchange ideas, to meet each other, and to develop the field
of Caribbean Studies. Most importantly, the Caribbean Studies Association
has become potentially one of the most important vehicles for researching,
analyzing, and documenting the growing significant presence of
populations of Caribbean descent in United States, Canada, and
Europe. It provides the perfect venue for maintaining the intellectual
and academic connections needed to study this growing phenomenon.
Members of CSA have played leading roles in the Caribbean, most
notably in public service and in academia. These include Dr. Ralph
Gonzalves, the current Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines;
Sir. Shirdath Ramphal, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth
Secretariat of the British Commonwealth Group of nations, former
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Guyana and former Chancellor
of the University of the West Indies; Dr. Leslie Francois Manigat,
former President of the Republic of Haiti; Dr. Vaughn Lewis, former
Director General of Eastern Caribbean States; Dr. Rex Nettleford,
Former Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies; Dr.
Compton Bourne, current President of the Caribbean Development
Bank and former Principal of the University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine; Dr. Eddie Greene, current Assistant Secretary General,
Caribbean Common Market; Dr. Cedric Grant, former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Republic of Guyana; Dr.Simon Jones-Hendrickson, Ambassador
at Large, St. Kitts and Nevis; Dr Robert Millett, Former Ambassador
to the United States from Grenada; and Dr. Ian Jacobs, former Foreign
Minister of Grenada. Many of these (Lewis, Bourne, Ragster, Millette,
Greene, Hendrickson, Ragster) served as President of the CSA. All
three of the principals of the three campuses of the University
of the West Indies (Mona, St. Augustine, and Cave Hill) have been
and are members of the CSA. Many of our current members serve in
senior positions at Caribbean, North American, and European universities.
The Caribbean Studies Newsletter is the official publication of
the Caribbean Studies Association. It is published twice annually,
and is distributed to all Association members as well as to Newsletter
subscribers.
Annual Conference
The CSA organizes a yearly meeting of its members for the exchange
of ideas and research related to the Caribbean. Since its founding,
over 20 Caribbean countries have hosted the Annual Conference.
Secretariat
The
CSA depends upon funding from a host university to support the
expenses for the Association’s
Secretariat, which was most recently housed, temporarily, at
the University of Puerto Rico. The Executive Council
engaged in discussions with the University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine campus, to secure a permanent location for the Secretariat
out of our conviction that the CSA should be housed at a Caribbean
institution. From January 2006 the Secretariat has been given a
permanent accommodation at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University
of the West Indies, St. Augustine.
Graduate Student Outreach
The CSA is actively involved in efforts to increase interests in the region
by graduate students at universities and colleges throughout the world and
to support those with research and teaching interests in the region.
Graduate and Professional Student Workshops.
The CSA hosts a Graduate and Professional Student Workshop in conjunction with
our annual conference and geared toward graduate student academic and professional
training in Caribbean Studies.
Development of policy formulation and advisory capabilities, and
mechanisms for practical support.
The Executive Council of the CSA would like to develop capabilities
and implement processes that would allow the Association to provide
the region, its countries, and various sectors with advice and
assistance, with practical support, and with the ability to develop
policy proposals in areas that are critical at all these levels.
We propose to draw upon scholars and practitioners (both members
and non-members of CSA) and to develop a consortium of Universities
with significant Caribbean Studies components (programs, departments,
institutes) with these proposed interventions in mind.
The CSA is also well placed to participate in the development
and support of policies and in the facilitating of interchanges
related to the linking of the Caribbean with its diaspora population
in the United States for regional, national, and community development.
The Caribbean overseas population is well placed to use its human
capital for the deepening and widening of bilateral relations between
their home and host countries in areas that bring considerable
benefits to the former. Those with skills, qualifications, influence
and access can be recruited for market research, analysis of opportunities
for trade, lobbying for aid and other forms of development assistance,
organizing homeland associations, and the spreading of information
about their home countries.
