The Haitian Studies Association (HSA)
The HSA provides a forum for the interchange of ideas about Haiti and its people at home and abroad. More specifically, the association is dedicated to encourage new scholarship and modes of pedagogy about Haiti, its history and culture. It also disseminates knowledge about Haiti in general and celebrates the scholarly achievements and contributions of those whose research interests focus on Haiti and its people.
(Note: the application for the 2008 International Programs is available here.)
Explore Haiti’s history, politics, culture, and economy from both external and internal perspectives. Students visit significant cultural, historical, and ecological sites including day trips to St. Marc, Gonaives, and Kenscoff. The program takes place at l’Université des Caribes in Montrouis, on the western coast of Haiti. Participants earn up to six credits. Click here for more information or download the brochure.
Designed to open new horizons on one of Africa’s most exciting regions, this program will incorporate academic course work, guest lectures, service learning projects, summer travel and participation in an international conference into a unique learning experience. Click here for more information.
Jamaica Today: People, Culture, and Politics
(Winter) Students are immersed in Jamaica’s culture, environment, language, and literature, as well as the country’s economic, political, and social realities. Participants spend approximately two weeks at the University of the West Indies in Kingston and the final week at Treasure Beach in southern Jamaica where, in addition to attending daily classes, they will work on a field project. Participants earn up to six credits.
Afro-Cuba Today: People, Culture and Historical Environment (Summer)
A unique educational opportunity for both undergraduate and graduate students to study Cuba’s social history, politics, culture and economy in Matanzas, Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo.
Haitian and Creole Summer Institute
Since 1995, the Institute has been conducted jointly by the Africana Studies Department and the Haitian Studies Project. Seminars include Haitian Creole I, II and III, and Advanced Techniques of Haitian Creole Translation. Click here for more information. or download the brochure. You can also download the Application for Homestay.
Cape Verdean Language and Culture Institute
The program teaches and encourages research into the Cape Verdean language, history and culture among individuals in greater Boston and others from both local and national settings, with a particular focus on those directly involved with members of the greater Cape Verdean community.
African Diaspora Project
The Africana Studies Department and The Boston Pan-African Forum have piloted an educational collaborative community service venture designed to foster academic achievement in students at Dorchester’s Codman Academy Charter School. Interdisciplinary instruction is provided there for two and one half hours on Saturdays in the history and culture of the African diaspora.
Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. / Amilcar Cabral Celebration
For seven years the Africana Studies Department, in conjunction with a group of concerned Cape Verdeans, have held a conference that presents the writings and thoughts of African-American leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Amilcar Cabral, leader of the movement for the independence of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau. The annual event is usually held in January on the birthday of Dr. King.
The Health Education and Learning Program (HELP)
This program for Black males’ health initiates dialogue and action aimed at increasing awareness of and affecting positive attitude changes relating to the health care needs of Black males in our society.
The James Bradford Ames Fellowship
Established in 1995 by Ms. Adele Ames, in memory of her late husband. James Bradford Ames was one of the first African-Americans to graduate with a degree in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ames was a descendant of Paul Cuffe, a successful African-American businessman and emigrationist of the nineteenth century who sought to take interested African-Americans back to Africa and to engage in international trade with England and the British Colony of Sierra Leone.
The broad purpose of the Ames Fellowship is to support, on a long-term basis, research and publication on all aspects of black and Cape Verdean social life and history in Nantucket. Specifically, the awards are intended to encourage detailed studies of influential families and individuals from the island, people’s professions and major occupational activities, the history of slavery, and the Cape Verdean presence on Nantucket. Scholarly research projects in these areas may be approached from any discipline or comparative perspective that helps to place the Nantucket and New England experience in a broader regional, national or global context.