University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica
Director Fall 2010: Professor Brian Moore, Professor of History and Africana and Latin American Studies
Program prerequisites| Course descriptions | Living arrangements
| Extra costs| Deadlines | Helpful links
Location
The University of the West Indies (UWI) at Mona, Jamaica. The UWI Mona campus is located in the suburbs of Jamaica’s capital city, Kingston. The university is a regional institution with students drawn from all over the Caribbean and beyond. The campus at Mona is the oldest and largest of four located in different Caribbean islands. Ranked very highly in the Commonwealth, the UWI offers courses in a wide array of disciplines in the humanities, education, social sciences, pure and applied sciences, medicine, law, engineering, journalism, and business studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
The West Indies study group to Jamaica is a semester long program, running from late August to mid-December, and students are eligible to earn four credits. The classroom experience will be enhanced by field trips, concerts and shows, and by living and studying with Caribbean students in a prestigious multi-national university. Students will find this study group offers a unique educational experience through combining excellent courses with a rich cultural environment.
Purpose
This study group will expose Colgate students to life in a developing country with a vibrant culture and dynamic society where virtually everything is different from what they are accustomed to at Colgate and in the United States. It will most certainly take them out of their comfort zones and into an entirely new and unfamiliar world. Their lived experience among Jamaican and Caribbean students of different ethnic backgrounds and with widely differing values and interests will challenge, expand and enrich their understanding of the world, how it functions, and their place in it. The UWI will place the study group participants in a scholarly environment where academic traditions and pedagogical systems are very different from Colgate; and they will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in courses in different disciplines that emphasize the issues of relevance and importance to the Caribbean and the developing world. The overall experience will require them to grow quickly and to rethink their own identity as Americans in a diverse global environment. This study group also enables students to take courses that can count towards a minor or major (Caribbean Studies emphasis) in the new Africana and Latin American Studies curriculum.
Prerequisites
Students are required to have taken at least one of the following courses in Caribbean Studies: ALST 203 Introduction to Caribbean Studies (CORE 163 The Caribbean); ALST 220 (CORE 161): The Black Diaspora – Africans at Home and Abroad; ALST/HIST 228 The Caribbean: Conquest, Colonization and Self-Determination; or ALST/HIST 327 Authoritarianism, Dictatorship and Democracy in the Caribbean. They must also be in good academic standing. There is no language requirement. Applicants’ motivation will be evaluated, and preference may be given to those who have taken more than one Caribbean course or are concentrators in Africana and Latin American Studies.
Living arrangements
All students will live in campus housing, sharing accommodation with UWI and other Colgate students. Students will have a choice of preparing some meals for themselves in the kitchens provided in the halls or eating at the campus cafeterias or in various facilities in the surrounding community. Most students choose a mix of these eating options. Housing is fully secured with 24-hour security service provided throughout the campus.
Courses
There will be a standard four-course load, with some additional cultural activities and field trips. Students will be required to take two courses with the Study Group Director, and two UWI courses. The director's courses will provide students with the academic grounding to assist them to interpret and understand the socio-cultural environment they are living in and their experiences in it:
ALST 2XX “Jamaica: From Colony to Independence” Pending Curriculum Committee approval. 1This analyses the history of Jamaica from 1655 when the British took possession of the island, through political independence in 1962, to the present. It examines the growth of Jamaica to become Britain’s most prosperous colony during the eighteenth century based on an export sugar-based, slave driven economy; the social and political consequences of its dependence on slavery; the economic effects of slave abolition and free trade during the nineteenth century; social and political developments after emancipation; the rise of an educated coloured and black middle class, and the growth of black nationalism among the poor; the move towards popular democracy after the second world war; and post-independence social and political developments. Taught by the director.
ALST 3XX “Jamaican Culture” Pending Curriculum Committee approval. This examines the growth and florescence of Jamaican culture drawn from diverse sources beginning with indigenous Taino/Arawak roots, European cultures, the cultures of enslaved Africans, and later cultural inputs from newer immigrants mainly from India and China, leading to the emergence of a unique Jamaican creole culture. Various aspects of this culture as well as the social forces that helped to shape it will be explored. In particular, efforts especially after the abolition of slavery to anglicise and “civilise” Jamaicans will be examined. The study of Jamaican culture will include religion and belief systems (obeah and myal, Revival, Kumina, Rastafari), marriage and family, art, theatre, music and dance (from slave forms to modern-day reggae and dancehall), literature, folklore, language, material culture (food, dress, architecture, etc.), festivals, and sports (cricket, football, athletics, tennis, etc.). Taught by the director.
Colgate students will have full access to the library facilities and academic support programs at the UWI. A wide range of courses will be available in African and African Diaspora Studies, Anthropology, Biology, Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Demography, Economics, Education, English, Environmental Biology, French, Gender Studies, Geography, Geology, History and Archaeology, International Relations, Linguistics, Mathematics, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Spanish, Zoology, and many more.
Course credits
All four pre-approved credits earned will count towards graduation, and grades for all the courses will be recorded on the students’ transcripts as Colgate grades. Appropriate courses will count towards concentrations in Africana and Latin American Studies, and credits for other concentrations should be negotiated directly by the student with the Chairs of those Departments.
Extracurricular activities
Students will be able to participate in all sporting, religious, and other cultural activities at the University of the West Indies, and a range of other activities is available off-campus. In addition, a variety of activities and field trips will be organized by the director to places of academic interest such as sugar plantations, runaway slave (maroon) settlements, historical colonial sites, art galleries and museums, e.g. the Bob Marley museum.
Costs
Costs above Colgate’s tuition include room and board, travel to and from Jamaica, visa fees, and necessary out-of-pocket expenses. On the average students can expect to spend about the same as a semester on campus. The costs are used in calculating the aid packages of students who receive financial aid, provided this is their first study group experience.
Students who are planning extensive personal travel will need to increase their budget accordingly.
Estimated student expenses
Deadlines
Information sessions will be held on Tuesday, November 3 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. in 331 Alumni Hall and on Wednesday, November 11 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. in 432 Alumni Hall.
Applications are available from Africana and Latin American Studies in 327 Alumni Hall or in Off-Campus Study in 201 McGregory Hall.
The deadline for applications is Friday, November 20, 2009. Applications should be turned in to the ALST Office in 327 Alumni Hall.
Students will be notified if they have been selected in January 2010.
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