… an island of contradictions floating amidst a sea of debate and obscured by clouds of confusion and misinformation. While Cuba is geographically our nearest neighbor in the Caribbean it is ideologically and politically remote. The island of Cuba is close but the idea of Cuba is often distant. This site seeks to bring the essence of Cuba a little bit closer by exploring the details and contradictions that make this country unique.
Check out what students of past trips have said:
View blog entry by 2014 Cuba participant Josh Fleming on “Apple Pie and Pineapple Sorbet: US and Cuban Nationalism”.
This website resulted from a course given by Professor Jan Knippers Black of at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
IPSG 8530 A CUBA: CHANGING COURSE FOR CHANGING TIMES
Prospectus for Onsite Course to be offered through GSIPM, J-Term 2017
By Professor Jan Knippers Black
This 2 or 4-credit hour onsite course taught in Cuba by Professor Black, will be offered in 2017 for J-Term. In addition to about 10 days onsite, mostly in and around Havana, the course will also comprise several pre-and post-travel meetings on campus, including a final presentation of findings for the campus and local communities.
It is anticipated that 15 students can be accommodated. The course will be open to all MIIS schools and programs. There are no prerequisites, but priority will be given to students from the DPP (IPD & MPA) program and to students who have prior immersive study or experience in development or human rights in Latin America.
Command of Spanish is not required. Interpretation will be available. Students will nevertheless be encouraged to seize the opportunity to familiarize or immerse themselves in the language and the culture. Full participation in scheduled events will be expected. Along with the presentations to take place toward the end of spring term, the course “deliverables” may take any of several forms but must represent a serious undertaking with respect to research and analysis. It is assumed that individual students will have particular research interests, but all will be expected to contemplate and address in their projects one or more of the topics underlined below.
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Cuba has always found itself, or placed itself, in most unusual circumstances. It was among the last of the Western Hemisphere countries to win independence (or at least nominal independence) from the Spanish. It was in part because such independence was largely nominal, hegemony having been passed to the United States, that Cuba in 1959 began to experience one of the most thorough-going revolutions the world had seen. And Cuba has held onto its revolutionary profile long after most other governments so assembled have abandoned revolutionary rhetoric as well as revolutionary inclusiveness.
As a consequence of that extraordinary history, Cuba has much to teach about the costs and benefits of revolution and also the costs and benefits of integrating belatedly a now globalized economy. Having been stripped time and again of capital and of markets, Cuba also has much to teach about self-help – about what communities can do for themselves when they have no other recourse. And the nature of the relationship between Cuba and the United States gives away the predominance in both countries of domestic interests and domestic politics in the design and execution of foreign policy. The recent opening of relations, after a half century of relentless displays of hostility raises interesting questions about sources of pressure for change and of resistance to such change to be addressed by our students.
Activities in Havana and around the Cuban Coast and countryside will likely include visits to, and discussions with leaders of :
The University of Havana and other academic institutions;
Various ministries, including those of foreign affairs and of tourism; Offices of the United Nations Development Program and other IGOs and NGOs; The US Interest Section of the Swiss Embassy (in effect, the US Embassy); Programs for city planning and preservation of colonial architecture; Sites of historic events, including the Bay of Pigs and the Museum of the Revolution; Nature preserves and sites of development of alternative energy, urban gardens, innovation in organic agriculture and in other means to community sustainability; Programs of planning and preparation for natural disasters, including hurricanes; Schools, clinics, and other elements of the highly developed and now endangered social infrastructure. Academies for the arts and centers for preservation of folk arts, like the Buena Vista Social Club; Export-processing zones and other sites of new industrial activity; Sites of special historical, political, or cultural events.
Our co-sponsoring organization in the past has been San Francisco-based Global Exchange, but sponsorship for 2017 remains to be negotiated.
