Graduate Student Initiatives

Graduate Student Activities in Brazil

The Caribbean Studies Association is committed to the professional development of Caribbean and Caribbeanist graduate students. Our organization can thrive and grow only if we continue to count among our active members those academics, researchers, policy makers and professionals whose work is Caribbean-related. We recognize that constricted space that exists for those interested in the Caribbean, given its small size and population, and that the CSA represents a unique and nurturing space for young intellectuals with Caribbean-related academic interests.
As a part of our efforts to nurture and encourage Caribbeanist graduate students to be active CSA members, we host a number of activities at each CSA meeting. In 2007 the CSA staged its fifth panel for graduate students called, “Finishing the Ph.D., getting a job and doing Caribbean studies.” We also, for the third year, hosted an “aunty and uncle” reception for graduate students where the specific aim was to foster faculty-student interaction. Year after year these events have been very successful, as measured by attendance, participation, and follow-up feedback. We are happy to boast that many of our recent faculty panellists and aunties and uncles started out attending the panel and participating as “nieces or nephews”.
Initially these activities were independent initiatives by CSA members. However, in the past two years, they have been codified by the CSA leadership as essential and important elements of the organization’s raison d’etre, and are fully supported by the CSA executive council as integral elements of the annual conference agenda. Most recently, our activities fall under the auspices of the specially convened special sub-committee of the CSA executive council, the Gender and Young Scholars committee (GYS) which meets to decide on specific measures to support and nurture our graduate students.
            In 2008 we would like to continue our efforts to reach out to graduate students in the organization. In light of this we will again have a panel on finishing the Ph.D. and getting a job. We will continue to have a breakfast reception for the graduate students along with the aunty and uncle mentoring program. This year we would like to expand the mentoring program beyond the conference and have the mentors stay in contact with their mentees throughout the year. We will also be introducing a new award for the best graduate student research paper presented at the conference. Dr Patricia Mohammad has also taken on leadership of the  gender and young scholars committee who will be working to implement more new initiatives’ directed towards gender equity and greater participation and training for leadership skills and positions among the young scholars in the CSA.  In the near future the gender and young scholars subcommittee hopes to write a funding proposal to the Ford Foundation for support of our graduate students to attend CSA meetings and for future leadership training sessions.
If you would like to get more involved in the activities of the young scholars program as a volunteer mentor or as a graduate student please contact Diana Thorburn dthorburn@kasnet.com   or Dr Mohammed pamohammed@cgds.uwi.tt

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. The workshop is part of our efforts aimed at graduate student academic and professional training in Caribbean Studies.