Introduction
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. Home to such indigenous peoples as the Arawaks and the Caribs, the region was colonized by Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United States. Populated by labor streams from Africa and Asia, as well by people from Europe and the Middle East, the Caribbean has extraordinary diversity in its people, languages, and cultural histories. It is a microcosm of contemporary global problematics: immigrant, indigenous, settle, and diasporic communities negotiating their status as nations and polities, while preserving individual pasts and identities.
The Interdisciplinary Caribbean Studies Minor at Wesleyan focuses upon aspects of this region. It draws upon faculty and curricula from many departments and programs: African American Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, The College of Letters, English, Latin American Studies, Religious Studies, Music, and Romance Languages (French), among others. It is by its diverse nature constituted as always multidisciplinary.
The Caribbean Studies Minor is an interdisciplinary minor, administered by the Coordinator: Indira Karamcheti, [email protected].