Rutgers Graduate students seeking to strengthen their expertise in Caribbean studies are encouraged to earn a Certificate in Critical Caribbean Studies in conjunction with an advanced degree in any Rutgers University graduate program.  Completing the requirements of this certificate, candidates will expand their career options and will realize a range of learning outcomes (including, but not limited to):

  • Gaining, furthering, and demonstrating expertise in topics focused on and related to the Caribbean
  • Developing an interdisciplinary Caribbean studies methodological framework
  • Enhancing their professional scholarly development within their discipline by gaining specialized training in Caribbean studies
  • Gaining the specialized writing and research skills to produce articles and dissertations that engage with many interdisciplinary conversations within Caribbean studies.  

Students interested in pursuing the certificate should initially meet with the RAICCS director (Professor Carter Mathes, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to discuss the requirements, which include:

  1. Successful completion of nine graduate level credits (three courses, with a grade of B or above in each) in graduate courses offered at Rutgers--New Brunswick, Rutgers--Newark, or Rutgers--Camden that focus on or are directly related to Caribbean studies.  At least one of these courses must be taken outside of the student’s degree program. These courses must be approved in advance by the program director and in consultation with the faculty member teaching the course.  Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in scheduled seminars to fulfill this requirement.  However, in some cases 3 of these credits may be from a directed research/independent study course, supervised by a RAICCS faculty affiliate who is also a member of the Graduate Faculty.
  2. Successful completion, with a grade of B or above, of the Critical Caribbean Studies “Theories and Methods” core graduate certificate course.  This course will focus on major themes, current critical issues, and interdisciplinary research methods within Caribbean studies. The course will be taught on a rotating basis by RAICCS faculty affiliates.  Guest faculty speakers from across the disciplines will be invited to the class. Students will complete a significant bibliographic research project and/or a written critical consideration of relevant interdisciplinary research methods and theory.
  3. Successful completion of a significant research project in Caribbean Studies.  This requirement may be fulfilled by a graduate seminar paper written for a graduate level course that satisfies requirement #1 (above); a significant portion of a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation that is focused on the Caribbean and/or employs a methodological framework from the field of Caribbean studies, or a published scholarly article focused on the Caribbean.

Students satisfying these requirements will be awarded the Graduate Certificate in Critical Caribbean Studies upon completion of their degree.

List of graduate courses recently taught by RAICCS faculty:

  • Black Surrealism. English. Mathes, C.
  • Caribbean Literature. English. Edmondson, B.
  • Anthropology 518: Power, Race, State, Nation. Bonilla, Y.
  • Africa in Literature and Film. English and AAAS. Edmondson, B.
  • Comparative Literature: Literature and Social Order, Maldonado-Torres, N.
  • Gender Borders/Changing Boundaries: Queer Brown Devotions. Women’s and Gender Studies. Decena, C.
  • Vernacular Literature. English and American Studies. Rutgers—Newark. Edmondson, B.
  • Caribbean Literature: Caribbean Narratives and the Poetics of [Post]national Identity. French, Larrier, R. graduate seminar.
  • “Archipelagoes,” Center for Cultural Analysis Seminar, Martínez-San Miguel, Y. & Stephens, M.
  • Race and Psychoanalysis: Affects of Difference. English. Stephens, M.
  • Comparative Colonialities, Comparative Literature, Martínez-San Miguel, Y.
  • “Archipelagoes,” Center for Cultural Analysis Seminar, Martínez-San Miguel, Y. & Stephens, M.
  • Caribbean Aesthetics. English.  Mathes, C.
  • Fanon, Foucault, and Said. Comparative Literature Program. Maldonado-Torres, N.
  • Readings in Modern Latin America. History. López, K.
  • Archipelagic American Studies: Literature and Visual Culture. English. Stephens, M.
  • Debates in Comparative Caribbean Studies: Beyond Creolization and Mulataje. Comparative Literature, Martinez-San Miguel, Y.
  • Caribbean Theorizing: Coloniality, Philosophy and Literature. Comparative Literature. Madonado Torres, N.
  • Space, Place, and Community. Sociology. Dinzey-Flores, Z. & Friedman, J.
  • The Natural History of American Literature, English. Iannini, C.
  • Topics in Cultural Anthropology: Sovereignty. Anthropology. Bonilla, Y.
  • ‘L’Urgence de dire’: 20th and 21st-Century Testimonial Narratives. French. Larrier, R.
  • Postcolonial Readings of Colonialism in America. Comparative Literature. Martinez- San Miguel, Y.
  • Race and Psychoanalysis: the Flesh Beneath the Skin. English. Stephens, M.
  • Sound in African American Literary and Cultural Practice. English. Mathes, C.

Participating Faculty

The following graduate faculty members, identified more fully on the RAICCS website (see link above), are among those involved in shaping the curricular arrangements and offering courses that can be applied to satisfy the curricular requirements for the graduate certificate program in Critical Caribbean Studies:

Yarimar Bonilla--Associate Professor in Latino and Caribbean Studies and Anthropology, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Kim D. Butler — Associate Professor in Africana Studies, Rutgers - New Brunswick

Jason Cortés — Assistant Professor in Spanish and Portuguese Studies, and American Studies, Rutgers University Newark.

Carlos Decena — Associate Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies and Latino and Caribbean Studies, Rutgers - New Brunswick

Zaire Dinzey-Flores — Associate Professor in Latino and Caribbean Studies and Sociology, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Belinda Edmondson — Professor, English, African American and African Studies; affiliate faculty, American Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, Center for Migration, Rutgers University Newark.

Tatiana Flores — Associate Professor in Art History and Latino and Caribbean Studies, Rutgers - New Brunswick

Marisa Fuentes — Assistant Professor in Women and Gender Studies and History, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Christopher Iannini — Associate Professor in English, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Elena Lahr Vivaz — Assistant Professor in Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Rutgers— Newark

Renee Larrier — Professor and Chair, Department of French, Rutgers - New Brunswick. Ph.D. French

Laura Lomas — Associate Professor, English and American Studies; Affiliate, Women and Gender Studies, Rutgers University-Newark.

Kathy López — Associate Professor in Latino and Caribbean Studies and History, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Nelson Maldonado Torres — Associate Professor in Latino and Caribbean Studies and Comparative Literature, Rutgers - New Brunswick

Yolanda Martinez San Miguel — Professor in Latino and Caribbean Studies and Comparative Literature, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Carter Mathes — Associate Professor in English, Rutgers - New Brunswick. Ph.D.

Anjali Nerlekar — Assistant Professor in African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures, Rutgers - New Brunswick. Ph.D.

Michelle Stephens — Professor I in English and Latino and Caribbean Studies, Rutgers - New Brunswick.

Camilla Stevens — Associate Professor in Latino and Caribbean Studies and Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers - New Brunswick