The Program in Cuban Studies at the University of Miami embraces an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Cuba’s past, present, and future. Courses in the program are offered in departments across the College of Arts & Sciences as well as several other colleges and schools.
From experts on Cuban history, contemporary politics, and foreign relations, to specialists in Cuban literature, visual art, music, and religious traditions, affiliate faculty study Cuba in all time periods and through a variety of lenses and perspectives. Students of the program have the rare opportunity to develop country-specific expertise at a university with the largest archival collection of Cuban materials outside of the island (the Cuban Heritage Collection), a significant Cuban American student population, and in the heart of Cuba’s diaspora. The program understands the study of Cuban exile and diaspora communities around the world as central to its mission, just as it stresses the importance of understanding Cuba in comparative perspective.
The Native and Global Indigenous Studies (NAGIS) is an interdisciplinary project that aims to make the Indigenous past and present of South Florida, our hemisphere, and the world a meaningful realm of scholarly inquiry and social engagement at the University of Miami. NAGIS developed out of an understanding that indigeneity comprises a compendium of social, political, and cultural realities and identifications with concrete implications for UM, South Florida, the Americas, and the world. Our commitment to anti-racism and social justice includes acknowledging and addressing the land theft, genocide, ethnocide, cultural erasure, and diverse sociopolitical challenges that Indigenous populations have faced in the US and globally. To this end, NAGIS brings together scholars, staff, and students from many schools and colleges to work together and in collaboration with Indigenous peoples locally, nationally, and internationally.