The Cuba Program
The Institute of Latin American Studies created in 2010 a Cuba Program aimed at increasing scholarly exchanges between Cuban scholars and their counterparts in the United States and other countries through publications, lectures, and academic visits. A key component of the program is the Columbia University-University of Havana Academic Exchange whereby Cuban scholars are invited to spend a semester at ILAS to pursue research using the material and human resources available at Columbia and elsewhere in the U.S.
Columbia academics also visit Cuba to engage in comparative analysis of topics of mutual interest. The Cuba Program has sponsored dozens of seminars and conferences at Columbia and other institutions. The research undertaken by both Cuban and U.S. scholars has resulted in a variety of publications and a book analyzing socioeconomic conditions in Cuba. Cuban entrepreneurs have also spent extended periods at Columbia on study trips intended to deepen their knowledge of strategies to meet the challenges of the non-state sector on the island. The program has also actively cooperated with the media in promoting greater understanding of U.S.-Cuban relations.
Our Academic Mission
Since 2011 the Cuba Program has organized over one hundred events, including conferences, lectures, and panels. Our programming includes the Cuba and Beyond lecture series, which brings leading scholars, journalists, artists, and public figures to Columbia for seminar-style discussion.
A key element of the Cuba Program is the exchanges with academic and research institutions in Cuba and the United States, including the University of Havana, the Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez, as well as centers of the arts. Since 2011 the Cuba Program has hosted over twenty visiting scholars and other experts as well as organized more than one hundred conferences, lectures, and panels. New programs include assisting the Fundación Antonio Nuñez Jiménez in "greening" a historic building in Old Havana that will become an environmental studies center and planning a festival of the arts in 2022 focused on Cuba-US musical, literary, cinemagraphic, and architectural exchanges from the 1920s to the present.
The Cuba Program has published four books in English and Spanish analyzing Cuba-US Relations, as well as laws and regulations pertaining to foreign investment in Cuba. Publications are available below.
Affiliated Faculty
Publications
eds., Margaret E. Crahan y Soraya M. CaStro Mariño
An analysis of the first two years of the process toward normalization of Cuba-U.S. relations from December 17, 2014 to January 2017.
eds., Gabriel Vignoli and Margaret E. Crahan
An investigation of the impact of the new paradigm of sustainability on on international investment law, with an emphasis on developing countries, specifically Cuba.
eds., Soraya M. CaStro Mariño y Margaret E. Crahan
El propósito central de esta obra radica en evaluar el deterioro que ha tenido lugar en las relaciones Cuba-Estados Unidos durante el primer periodo de mandato del presidente Donald J. Trump.
By Max Paul Friedman
On February 6, 2020, ILAS held a panel discussion on Democrats and Latin American voters in the United States.
eds., Dr. Margaret E. Crahan and Lic. Gretchen Sánchez
This work is about efforts at environmental cooperation between the United States and Cuba and the need for Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) to be taken advantage of in the rise of environmental crisis.
(English/Spanish)