Summer: Rutgers-The Caribbean and the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities - BARBADOS
The Program
A week-long interactive learning experience that offers insight into the ways that a Caribbean small island developing state serves as a microcosm of contemporary global challenges and opportunities.
The Caribbean and the 21st Century is a one-credit interdisciplinary immersion program that will provide opportunities to both explore and interrogate the comparative complexities of Black people’s history, culture, and experiences across the African Diaspora with a focus on the Caribbean. During the week, students will visit various sites and be engaged in conversations with local scholars and experts, community members and peers. These sites include: the Newton Burial Ground and Rock Hall Freedom Village, and the PEG Farm and Nature Reserve at Easy Hall Plantation; a visit to the rum distillery and parliament, and conclude with participation in local cultural events.
Program Locations
Barbados
Bridgetown
Barbados - where the crossroads of history and contemporary life shape a unique national identity - embodies a rich fusion of culture, resilience, and innovation. From its early Indigenous peoples to its role during and after the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Barbados serves as a microcosm of the profound impact of both colonization and globalization. Its capital Bridgetown is a symbol of this journey through time, where colonial artifacts coexist with Afro Caribbean modernity. In the 21st century, with its lush landscapes, global activism, and artistic wealth, Barbados invites a reimagining of its future—one that continues to recover and honor its past while working toward a more equitable and just future.
Academics
This course satisfies several University core requirement learning objectives including: glocal learning, understanding intercultural relations, responding to diversity, and using multiple modes of inquiry and critical thinking to examine key issues.
Course Learning Goals
- Explain the historical significance of Barbados in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and its emancipation and independence efforts
- Explore the ways that Barbados has retained African cultural practices and the contemporary articulation of these practices in everyday life
- Analyze the role that Barbados has and continues to employ in mediating our understanding of the Caribbean, the formerly colonized Americas, Europe as colonizing instigators and the Black Diaspora
- Evaluate the ways that Barbados’ contemporary environmental realities have impacted global climate justice efforts
- Examine the role that Barbados and CARICOM have played in broadening global reparations demands
Suggested Prerequisites:
- Prerequisites: Successful completion of Intro to Caribbean Studies, Caribbean Politics, Caribbean Societies, History of the Caribbean, OR Caribbean Slavery.
To view past years syllabus and itinerary click here.
Current Rutgers students who participate in this Barbados program will be eligible to participate in the Ghana 2026 faculty-led program Middle Passages to and From Ghana.
Housing and Meals
The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus will serve as our home base. Students will live in a shared space, but have their own bedrooms for the duration of our stay. Most breakfast meals will be at the University's Cafe. Students are responsible for all other meals.
Financial Information
Program Costs
| NJ Resident | non-NJ Resident | |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | $2,480 | $2,590 |
| Graduate | $2,550 | $2,650 |
Program Cost includes:
- Tuition
- Housing
- Some meals
- Guest speakers and lecturers
- In country transportation for excursions
- Excursions
- Administrative Fees
- Emergency Medical Access Abroad
Out-of-Pocket Costs
| Airfare | $700 |
| Meals | $250 |
| Local Transportation | $20 |
| Personal Expenses | $150 |
| Total | $1,120.00 |
Out-of-Pocket Cost includes:
The above costs are estimations and represent the known out-of-pocket costs students encounter during their time abroad.
Some of these expenses will be paid for prior to going abroad, such as an airline ticket, while some of these expenses, such as meals and personal expenses, will be paid in-country as part of your daily expenses. As you plan, you will need to budget these costs and spend wisely throughout your time abroad.
Scholarships
Faculty Leaders
Hyacinth Miller is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Rutgers University - Newark School of Arts and Sciences Africana Studies and Political Science Departments. She works as a Lecturer in the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies and Political Science on the New Brunswick campus. Her research focuses on the Caribbean, Caribbean immigrants in the Diaspora, Black women in elected leadership, immigrant political incorporation and comparative politics. Hyacinth has conducted original research and presented conference papers on the subject of West Indians in the US, Haitian Americans in the United States and on multiple citizenship policies in the Caribbean. She has published on West Indians in elected office in New Jersey and serves on the board of ISS-USA.