University of Texas at Austin: Central America - Afro-Caribbean Politics and Culture

Based in Bluefields, the capital city of the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region in Nicaragua, the program is designed to provide students with a unique international experience with faculty preeminently fit to give them an outstanding intellectual experience. Classes are held at the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN), one of two regional universities founded in the 1990s by Black and indigenous costeños. The program courses appeal to students who are interested in activist scholarship, race, gender, class, sexuality and identity.By experiencing the unique culture of Bluefields, students learn about a related-but-distinct strand of the Black experience in the Americas, which is relatively unknown outside of the region. The course is conducted in English, as this area of the Atlantic Coast has a particular history with Anglo-Saxon powers.The program seeks intellectually ambitious students who are interested in research that has a social justice focus. Students interact and conduct joint research projects with URACCAN students and other Black and indigenous costeños. The program culminates in a presentation of original research that considers the processes of race, gender, power and culture operating within and upon Black communities.