Cuba at 50 - One day workshop

You’ve seen the film Che, you know about Fidel Castro and the 1959 Revolution, you love the music and dance salsa, you’ve been to Cuba or are
planning to go, and you want to know more about the people, their history and culture, and the politics of a country which for the past 50 years has
challenged world orthodoxy.

This day workshop will explore the historical and contemporary internal and external forces that have shaped modern Cuba; aspects of continuity
and discontinuity; migration and the political challenge to notions of the nation-state; the complexities and polarization of approaches to
understanding Cuba; key features of revolutionary Cuba 1959-89; crisis and adjustment since 1990; and diaspora as well as island politics and
culture. Special attention will be paid to race, class, gender and nation, and to music, dance, and religion. The workshop will also be tailored to
the particular interests of participants.

25 April 2009

The following are events that have been organised by, or in collaboration with, the Caribbean Studies Centre:

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004 and Before

2008

27 October 2008
Book launch: Gabriel García Márquez: a life, by Gerald Martin
Further information...

2007

8th November 2007
Book launch & lecture,David Dabydeen (University of Warwick)
"The Gladstone Coolies of British Guiana" to mark the launch of The First Crossing: The Diary of Theophilus Richmond

4-6 July 2007
The Caribbean Studies Centre hosted the 2007 conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies.
Further details...

13-14 July 2007
International workshop: Commodities of Empire.
Organised in collaboration with the Ferguson Centre (Open University).
Further details about the Commodities of Empire project...

2 May 2007
Erna Brodber. Distinguished Jamaican novelist and sociologist Erna Brodber read from her new novel, The Rainmaker's Mistake (New Beacon Books), and discussed her work as a writer, researcher and political activist in Jamaica.

19 April 2007
Caribbean Voices: The Transatlantic Slave Trade in Africans. A seminar and book fair focusing on Caribbean perspectives to mark the Bicentenary of the British Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

8 March 2007
Urban Music from theCaribbean. Sheldon Blackman and the Love Circle (Trinidad and Tobago); Obsesión (Cuba); Los Paisanos ( Cuba).
Further details...

7 February 2007
Opal Palmer Adisa read from her new short story collection.
Further details...

2006

Black History Month October 2006
The Caribbean Studies Centre was pleased to host Klive Walker on A New Perspective on Reggae History, in conversation with Jorge Giovannetti.

Thursday, October 12th.
Reggae historian Klive Walker, author of 'Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Uniderground' (Canada: Insomniac Press, 2006) shared firsthand stories of roots reggae's origins, reggae women Millie Small, Judy Mowatt, Lady Saw, Tanya Stephens, and linked roots reggae culture with dancehall, hip hop and reggaeton. Jorge Giovannetti (British Academy Visiting Fellow/University of Puerto Rico), author of 'Sonidos de condena: sociabilidad, historia y política en la música reggae de Jamaica' (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 2001), added a Hispanic Caribbean flavour to reggae.

Wednesday, 7th June
An evening with Gus John, who talked about his new book, Taking a Stand

For more information click here.

Tobacco Revisited: Transnational Perspectives
An International Seminar
Organised by Jean Stubbs (Caribbean Studies Centre), and Juan José Baldrich and Jorge Giovannetti (University of Puerto Rico), at the University of Puerto Rico, 14th March 2006.

Seminar programme

Participants of the seminar, including Jean Stubbs (back, 2nd left) and Jorge Giovannetti (front, 1st right)

The Caribbean Single Market and Economy
Lecture, given on 2nd March 2006 by Professor Norman Girvan, of the Institute of International Relations at the University of West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, and former Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States.

Powerpoint presentation

2005

Ronald Sanders
Lecture: Hope After Disasters - The Caribbean 2005
A public lecture by Sir Ronald Sanders, writer, broadcaster and former senior Caribbean diplomat, 23rd November 2005.

Lecture text

Leonardo Padura
Book Launch
On 13th April 2005, London Metropolitan University hosted the launch of the first book to be published in English by this popular Cuban novelist: Havana Red (Bitter Lemon Press)
For further details contact Pat Wood. p.wood@londonmet.ac.uk. Tel: 020 7133 3067

Archaelogy of the Tainos in Cuba
In March, 2005, the Caribbean Studies Centre hosted three events at which Cuban archaeologist Roberto Valcarcel Rojas presented findings of research currently being undertaken in Cuba into various aspects of the life and society of the Tainos, before and after the arrival of the Spanish.
Further details.

Carlos Acosta Cuba 20-20 Vision Seminar Series A head-to-head with the acclaimed ballet dancer Wednesday, 2nd March 2005 Sponsored by Cuban Embassy and International Institute for Culture, Tourism and Development

2004 and Before

An Evening with Sir Gary Sobers
Thursday, 10th June 2004, at 6pm

A public lecture and discussion to mark the 75th Anniversary of West Indies Cricket.
A reception followed the lecture, and Sir Gary signed his acclaimed autobiography

A public lecture by Lakshmi Persaud was also hosted by the Centre.

Left to right: Juliet King-Malik, CSC administrator and undergraduate student on the Caribbean Studies programme; Cuban scholar Marta Cordies Jackson, Director of the African Cultural Centre in Santiago de Cuba; writer Daisy Rubiera Castillo, author of the book Reyita; Professor Jean Stubbs, CSC director; and PhD student Camillia Cowling.	Students and staff enjoying the seminar with Marta and Daisy.

December 2002

Norman Girvan, former Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), gave a lecture to the Caribbean Studies Centre, at which time he was also given an honorary doctorate by the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University). Norman Girvan is currently a professorial research fellow with the Institute of International Relations of the University of the West Indies, in St Augustine, Trinidad.

Autumn 2002

The Centre was launched with two high profile public lectures, one by Sir Shridath Ramphal, then Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat; and one by Professor Norman Girvan, then Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States.

May 2002

Lecture: Stuart Hall
Thinking the Diaspora: Home Thoughts from Abroad

April 2002

Lecture: Pedro Pérez Sarduy
Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba

April 2002

Co-sponsored British in Cuba conference, Institute of History, Havana

November 2000

British Council-sponsored Cuban Higher Education Ministerial Visit