Graduate Student Initiatives

Graduate Student Activities in Curacao 2011

Lindsey Hebert, Dwaine Plaza & Dianna Thorburn

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 the 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 2010 the CSA staged its ninth panel for graduate students called, "Finishing the Ph.D., getting a job and doing Caribbean studies." We also, for the sixth 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 panel lists 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 four 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 2011 in Curacao 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 welcome breakfast, a panel on how to finish your Ph.D. and get an academic job, and a senior scholar mentorship program (aunties/ uncles).

In 2011 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 be continuing to offer two prestigious awards for graduate students. One for the best graduate student research paper presented at the conference and the other for the best graduate student paper presented at the conference which is focused on social justice.

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 Lindsey Herbert (lherbert@berkeley.edu), Dwaine Plaza (dplaza@oregonstate.edu), Diana Thorburn (dthorburn@jhu.edu) or Marika Preziuso (marika.preziuso@googlemail.com). They will be coordinating the 2011 CSA graduate student program. Please see the newsletter and web site for photographs of the students who participated in the 2010 conference program. We look forward to meeting you in Curacao in 2011.