About us
The Centre for Integrated Caribbean Research (CICR) is a part of the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and came about thanks to an initiative of the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS).
Unique in the UK and Europe, the Centre for Integrated Caribbean Research supports collaborative research among scholars in the Humanities and cognate Social Sciences, focusing on interdisciplinary and comparative work across historical, political, cultural and linguistic boundaries in the Caribbean region. The Centre seeks to promote research into the Caribbean as an integrated unit, leading to new research agendas for scholars in the field.
The CICR aims to develop comprehensive programmes of research promotion and facilitation activities that focus on new approaches to the region that span linguistic, disciplinary and conceptual boundaries. This shall enable scholars to participate in broader conversations across the humanities disciplines concerned with Caribbean studies. As a hub for intellectual exchange, the Centre hopes to enable the discovery and development of new knowledge at the edges and intersections of traditional fields of study heretofore neglected by academia.
The Centre shall act as a resource centre for Caribbean studies in the UK and beyond. It shall bring to a wider audience the library and other resources available in SAS and the Senate House Library. It will also develop a portal to digital resources available nationally and internationally for the study of the Caribbean region.
The Centre is committed to the dissemination of research findings beyond academia. It intends to collaborate with relevant NGOs, government bodies, embassies and local communities, especially those of Caribbean heritage, and provide input to public policy
Through these activities the Centre shall:
- Foster innovative work in the Humanities and cognate Social Sciences as they relate to the Caribbean region, thereby encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue and research the field of the Humanities and cognate Social Sciences in general.
- Make resources available for the study of the Caribbean more widely accessible to scholars and a wider public.
- Sustain and nurture integrated approaches and international perspectives on the Caribbean across the United Kingdom.
- Explore the history of the region from pre-European times to the present, examining the effects of colonialism, independence and globalization on the cultures, economies and political systems of the Caribbean.
- Work with all of the SAS Institutes and the Centre for Postcolonial Studies.
- Deliver a programme of events and activities that transfer academic research on the region to non-academic audiences.
- Reinvigorate the study and appreciation of Caribbean societies and cultures in the United Kingdom.