UB president leads delegation attending graduation for UB-UH program
By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor
President John B. Simpson will lead a UB delegation that will travel to
Havana, Cuba, to attend ceremonies marking the fourth graduation of the
Master's of Humanities (MAH) Program in Caribbean Cultural Studies
jointly operated by UB and the University of Havana.
The program in Caribbean cultural studies is the only joint graduate
program ever established between a university in the United States and a
Cuban university. Of the seven academic programs offered by American
universities in Cuba today by such schools as Harvard University and
American University, two are operated by UB-the MAH program and a
semester—abroad program for undergraduate students.
During the visit from June 3-7, Simpson and UH Rector Rubén Zardoya
Loureda will sign a new agreement for scholarly exchange and
collaboration between the two universities.
Also that week, faculty from both universities will present the second
Caribbean Cultural Studies Symposium at which papers on Caribbean
culture will be presented in French, Spanish and English—the languages
of the Caribbean. Simpson will make opening remarks at the symposium. He
also will attend a thesis presentation by the graduating students and a
presentation by leading UH scientists on their current research in the
natural sciences and biotechnology.
The graduation ceremony on June 6 also will mark the fifth anniversary
of the establishment of the MAH program, which is designed for American
and Cuban students who are fully bilingual in Spanish and English. This
year also is the 10th anniversary of UB's academic programs in Cuba, in
which 268 students have participated since the university launched its
first summer abroad program there in 1997.
Simpson said that UB's "unique and evolving partnership with the
University of Havana is an example of a new and innovative
interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching, and an exciting and
sustainable model for international cooperation in higher education."
"As UB implements the ambitious vision of UB 2020 and UH sets out to
celebrate its 280th anniversary under the banner of 'A new university
for a new world,' I have the strong sense that our institutions share a
vision of what the university of the future can look like," he added.
Stephen C. Dunnett, UB vice provost for international education, noted
that "in the recent period, no other U.S. university has had such an
extensive and enduring presence in Cuba as UB."
"In light of the transition now under way in Cuba, it is a particularly
propitious time for our president to visit the country in order to
reaffirm our longstanding relationship with the University of Havana and
our joint program in Caribbean studies," he said.
In addition to Dunnett, Simpson will be accompanied on the trip by his
wife, Katherine G. Simpson; Jose Buscaglia, founder and director of the
collaborative programs; and members of the MAH Program faculty from UB.
They are Jorge Guitart, professor of Romance Languages and Literatures,
College of Arts and Sciences; Shaun Irlam, professor and chair,
Department of Comparative Literature, CAS; and David E. Johnson,
associate professor, Department of Comparative Literature.
Buscaglia described the MAH Program in Caribbean Cultural Studies as one
in which participants have the opportunity to study the Caribbean on its
own terms.
"They gain firsthand knowledge of the complex cultures and traditions of
the region through on-site investigations and direct participation in
the processes that shape everyday life," he explained. "The program
offers them the opportunity to spend up to three semesters studying and
living in the Caribbean, starting with an initial first semester of
studies in Cuba."
One of this year's MAH graduates is Reynier Perez-Hernández, a Cuban
national, and five are Americans of Cuban descent: Kyle James
Mittlefehldt, Sugey C. Palomares, Amanda M. Phelps, Meghan Dorothea
Hern-Steed and Melissa Ventura.
Graduation speakers will include Perez-Hernández and Jose Antonio
Baujín, dean of the UH Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Upon its arrival in Havana, the UB delegation will attend a dinner with
UH Vice Rector Cristina Díaz, Dean José Antonio Baujín and Rogelio
Rodríguez Coronel, Margarita Mateo Palmer and Yolanda Woods Pujols, UH
professors who teach in the MAH program and are adjunct professors at UB.
During the visit, the delegation will take a walking tour of Old Havana
and spend time at Ernest Hemingway's Cuban home, El Vigía, in San
Francisco de Paula, now a museum dedicated to the writer
It also will visit the town of Viñales, Pinar del Rio Province, and
attend the workshop "Casa taller Pedro Pablo Oliva" as guests of the
artist Pedro Pablo Oliva, one of the masters of the first generation of
artists produced by the Cuban Revolution.
UB will host a banquet at Havana's Hotel Sevilla in honor of the
graduating MAH students and in celebration of the 10th anniversary of UB
programs in Cuba.
Simpson will have an opportunity to visit the Convento de Santa Clara,
where UB students and program faculty reside during the academic
semester, and pay a courtesy call on the director of the National Center
for Conservation, Restoration and Museum Studies.
The UB-UH MAH Program in Caribbean Cultural Studies is the only joint
graduate program ever established between a U.S. and a Cuban university.
It so far has graduated 28 students, and 13 more have been accepted for
the fall 2007 semester.
Another 223 students participated in UB's summer abroad program in Cuba
from 1997 until it was shut down in 2004 by a White House prohibition
against academic travel to Cuba for periods of less than 10 weeks, which
eliminated more than 300 programs offered there by U.S. universities.
UB replaced the summer program with an undergraduate semester abroad
program in Spanish language, and Cuban and Caribbean culture. Designed
as an undergraduate counterpart to the MAH Program in Caribbean Cultural
Studies, it has had 13 participants to date and five more are scheduled
to participate in the fall semester.
In the fall of 2006, UB began to offer its Ph.D. students a fall
semester abroad program in Cuba. They conduct research and take courses
offered through the MAH program. One doctoral student completed the
program last year and two more have been accepted for the fall semester.
http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol38/vol38n35/articles/SimpsonCuba.html
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