An undergraduate degree in Carnival Studies, you say? Well, why not? Trinidad & Tobago is after all the Mecca of all things Carnival – from the music to the mas and the fetes that usher it all in. We’re the ‘go to’ people for Carnivals globally and our designers and band leaders can be found wherever there is a Carnival.
It’s only fitting therefore that the St Augustine Campus should have the exclusive on the BA in Carnival Studies. It’s the only programme where students pursue a mix of studies in arts entrepreneurship, cultural and events management, cultural studies research and practice and carnival arts design. It provides those strong linkages and practical engagement with creative enterprises and offers a classroom experience in which students are exposed to a range of disciplines: communication studies, theatre, visual arts, film, economics, tourism and hospitality and engineering. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
For almost two decades, the Department of Creative and Festival Arts, through its Carnival Studies Unit, has given focus to developing the human resource capacity within the masquerade industry and the wider cultural economy of the Caribbean. The end result is a degree that prepares graduates for engagement in the Carnival and Creative industry as leaders in innovation, cultural research and festival management.
In the final year, students have to undertake a year-long Festival Project, their own arts-based, multi-disciplinary project. In fact, according to Dr Jo-Anne Tull, Co-ordinator of the Carnival Studies programme, many student projects emerging from this course have become business models, events, community projects in their own right beyond their final year assessment. A strong reinforcement of the Festival Project is Festival Management which exposes the student to events and festival management (planning, marketing, market research, financial planning, audience development, event staging, and impact assessment). The final course that achieves the Carnival Studies Degree programme is the ‘Economics of Copyright’ which is designed to take students beyond the legal framework of copyright and expose them to the political economy of copyright, highlighting the dynamic nature of the topic and how it impacts on the creative Industry.
So if you want to go beyond the mas playing and the mas making to become a mas entrepreneur, then contact Dr Jo-Anne Tull, jo-anne.tull@sta.uwi.edu or 663-2222 / 662-2002 ext 82510 for further information. But you have to hurry – deadline for the submission of applications is May 31st!
An undergraduate degree in Carnival Studies, you say? Well, why not? Trinidad & Tobago is after all the Mecca of all things Carnival – from the music to the mas and the fetes that usher it all in. We’re the ‘go to’ people for Carnivals globally and our designers and band leaders can be found wherever there is a Carnival.
In the final year, students have to undertake a year-long Festival Project, their own arts-based, multi-disciplinary project. In fact, according to Dr Jo-Anne Tull, Co-ordinator of the Carnival Studies programme, many student projects emerging from this course have become business models, events, community projects in their own right beyond their final year assessment. A strong reinforcement of the Festival Project is Festival Management which exposes the student to events and festival management (planning, marketing, market research, financial planning, audience development, event staging, and impact assessment). The final course that achieves the Carnival Studies Degree programme is the ‘Economics of Copyright’ which is designed to take students beyond the legal framework of copyright and expose them to the political economy of copyright, highlighting the dynamic nature of the topic and how it impacts on the creative Industry.