Caribbean Trans-disciplinary Thinking: Lourdes Casal and Archipelagic Studies
Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
Martha S. Weeks Chair in Latin American Studies
Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
University of Miami
November 30, 2-3:30 p.m.
This presentation discussed the urgency to engage in trans-disciplinary research, to meditate about the transformation of existing disciplinary formations in the Humanities and the Social Sciences within Caribbean Studies. Martinez-San Miguel illustrated trans-disciplinary research by discussing two cases.
First, she discussed Lourdes Casal's trans-disciplinary contributions using three concrete examples:
- Academic training and doctoral dissertation
- Study of Cuban exile and migration by combining research approaches from psychology, sociology and literary and cultural studies
- Focus on womanist recoveries of Cuban history and diasporic experiences as precursors to work on sexuality and gender studies.
She then discussed her most recent book project in archipelagic studies, that explores questions from history, political economics and geography to examine the meaning of the archipelago as a theoretical prism through which literary and artistic conceptualizations of the Caribbean have been developed.
