Our 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 the Caribbean Region, North America, South America, Central America, Europe and elsewhere even though more than half of its members live in the United States many of them teaching at U.S. universities and colleges. Founded in 1974 by 300 Caribbeanists, the CSA now h as over 1100 members.

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. 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 current and past service as leaders of governments, administrators in multilateral and bi-lateral regional organizations. Many of our current members serve in senior positions at Caribbean, North American, and European universities.