This magazine’s issue marks the occasion of my second trip to Cuba with my graduate students. The first trip took place last summer and was the first graduate seminar I conducted in Cuba on Gender, Race and Religion. Because of the success of the firs trip, I decided to return with a new group of my students (except for Dott who accompanied me last year). We were nine, Nell, Brandon, Bria, Alli, Kimbo, April, Dott, Meredith and I. While I was nervous that this trip may not live up to the success of last year’s trip, it only took me a day after we reached Havana to realize that this was going to be a memorable trip, the excitement in my students’ faces, the anticipation, the curiosity and the number of questions I was bombarded with everyday– all were positive signs.
My students did not not just get to meet scholars, researchers, religious practitioners and artists, but they also made friends. They connected and communicated. They learnt about Cuban cuisine and religious initiation, moved to the rhythm of Rumba, Cuban Hip Hop and Reggae, and walked on the Malecon and chatted with passers-bye. They were fully immersed in the day to day, and that is where the transformative value of studying abroad resides, in the day to day encounters and exchanges and the way they fuse with and inform the intellectual process.
This magazine is my students’ labor of love. In it you will find their thoughts, ideas and impressions about Cuba in various pieces that range from religious syncretism, altars, animal sacrifice, popular education, sex education, the economy, Women’s Magazine and popular culture.
I hope whoever visits this site enjoys the pieces. Feel free to visit the contact page and share your comments, thoughts or questions with us.
And before I conclude, I would like to thank all of those who made this possible, Dean Robert Olin of the College of Arts and Sciences, whose initiative in Cuba opened the doors for a program like mine to grow and thrive, to Capstone International for their diligence, and to all the wonderful and generous scholars and researchers in Cuba, especially the wonderful and ever so generous Tomas Robaina and our program coordinator, the miracle worker, Henry Heredia.
Here is to another memorable trip!
My students did not not just get to meet scholars, researchers, religious practitioners and artists, but they also made friends. They connected and communicated. They learnt about Cuban cuisine and religious initiation, moved to the rhythm of Rumba, Cuban Hip Hop and Reggae, and walked on the Malecon and chatted with passers-bye. They were fully immersed in the day to day, and that is where the transformative value of studying abroad resides, in the day to day encounters and exchanges and the way they fuse with and inform the intellectual process.
This magazine is my students’ labor of love. In it you will find their thoughts, ideas and impressions about Cuba in various pieces that range from religious syncretism, altars, animal sacrifice, popular education, sex education, the economy, Women’s Magazine and popular culture.
I hope whoever visits this site enjoys the pieces. Feel free to visit the contact page and share your comments, thoughts or questions with us.
And before I conclude, I would like to thank all of those who made this possible, Dean Robert Olin of the College of Arts and Sciences, whose initiative in Cuba opened the doors for a program like mine to grow and thrive, to Capstone International for their diligence, and to all the wonderful and generous scholars and researchers in Cuba, especially the wonderful and ever so generous Tomas Robaina and our program coordinator, the miracle worker, Henry Heredia.
Here is to another memorable trip!