SS 150: Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean

SPRING 2009: SOME SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR A RESEARCH PAPER

Your research paper can be on any aspect of Caribbean culture or history, past or present. To make the job of choosing a topic a little easier for you, here’s a list of some suggested general topics. You do not have to pick one of these suggested topics. These are only some general suggestions; feel free to come up with your own topic for a paper. Remember that these are general topics; try to make your papers as specific as possible. You must give me a topic for your paper and a brief outline of your paper by Monday March 30 at the very latest. If you hand in your outline late, the grade you get on your paper will be reduced by ½ a grade (a paper that would have gotten a B will get a B- instead).

1. The native peoples of the Caribbean, the Taino and the Carib. What were their lives like and what happened to them after the European invasion?
2. Early European exploration and first settlement of the Caribbean – late 1400s-à early 1600’s.
3. A paper on sugarcane and its role in the development of Caribbean societies, as well as the effects sugarcane has had on the rest of the world..
4. Pirates and buccaneers of the 16th and 17th century Caribbean.
5. African slavery and Caribbean history
6. The slave trade and the middle passage. How were million of Africans enslaved and how were they transported across the Atlantic Ocean?
7. Life on a Caribbean sugarcane plantation during the days of slavery.
8. African influences in Caribbean cultures.
9. Slave resistance – slave rebellions, running away, etc..
10. How and why slavery ended in the Caribbean.
11. How and why about half a million people from India, and another several hundred thousand people from China, came to the Caribbean in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
12. The Haitian slave uprising of 1791: how it happened and what were its consequences.
13. The increased political, military, and economic involvement of the United Sates in the Caribbean in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
14. How Caribbean nations got their independence.
15. The economic situation in the Caribbean today: how do people make a living?
16. The tourist industry.
17. Religions of the Caribbean.
18. The foods of the Caribbean and what they can tell us about the history and the cultures of the region..
19. Caribbean migration: why do so many people want out of the Caribbean and where do they go? What happens to them once they leave?
20. Caribbean music – focus on one or two specific styles of Caribbean popular music (reggae, dancehall, calypso, soca, Afro-Cuban music, chutney music, meringue, etc and discuss their history, their characteristics and their role in society.
21. U.. S. policy in the Caribbean during the 20th century – for example, the U. S. invasion and occupation of Haiti in 1916, the invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, the 1983 invasion of Grenada.
22. A paper on the history and culture of Puerto Rico.
23. The Trujillo era in the Dominican Republic.
24. Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution.
25. Caribbean education: what kinds of schools are found in Caribbean societies today? What kind of an education do children and young people get?
26. Caribbean politics.
27. Caribbean sports.
28. The impact of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on Caribbean societies.