Cuba research forum

Tony Kapcia outlines the history and current activities of the University of Nottingham's Cuba Research Forum and Centre for Research on Cuba while Par Kumaraswami (below) provides details of research on literature and politics.

The Cuba Research Forum has existed in different forms since 1998, when it was set up jointly by the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Havana. Although this arose from an existing exchange (since 1994) with Havana's Facultad de Lenguas Extranjeras, the Forum for the Study of Cuba (its original name) was the brainchild of a long collaboration between Tony Kapcia and Rubén Zardoya, then Dean of the Facultad de Filosofía e Historia, and was based on an unusual and remarkable collection of periodical and bibliographic materials on and from Cuba (dating from 1961), which Alistair Hennessy (then the doyen of Cuban studies in the UK) had inherited and which he subsequently donated to Wolverhampton on his retirement from the University of Warwick; this resource was named the Hennessy Collection in his honour. In 2003, when Tony Kapcia moved to Nottingham, the Forum was also transferred, becoming the Cuba Research Forum. It was accompanied by the Hennessy Collection, which has since been enhanced through regular (and increased subscriptions) and through substantial donations of material, becoming the mainstay of the Forum's postgraduate-focussed operation.

Since its inception, the Forum has essentially consisted of a network of UK-based researchers on Cuba who meet through its conferences and workshops; are kept informed of academic events about and in Cuba, and who have access to the Hennessy Collection. There are currently over 50 UK-based members, and 16 others in other countries, with over 30 postgraduate associate student members. In addition, there are over 50 Cuban colleagues who have been invited to become members, either because of their standing in their field or because of their participation in Forum events. Indeed, through the Forum, 59 Cuban academics have come to the UK since 1994.

The Forum's principal activity has been its annual conference, organising since 1998 with the University of Havana, alternating between the UK and Havana. These events have covered a range of themes, such as Continuidades en La Revolución Cubana (Continuities in the Cuban Revolution); Cuba vista por el Mundo y el Mundo visto por Cuba (Cuba seen by the world and the world seen by Cuba); Vanguardias en la Cuba Moderna ; Cuba ayer y hoy: raíces históricas, políticas y culturales (Cuba yesterday and today: historical, political and cultural roots); Cuba y Europa; Emigraciones y exilios, inmigraciones e influencias: el impacto del flujo humano en la formación de Cuba (Cuba and Europe: emigrations and exiles, immigrations and influences); and (Cuba seen by the world and the world seen by Cuba); ; (Cuba yesterday and today: historical, political and cultural roots); ; (Cuba and Europe: emigrations and exiles, immigrations and influences); and Cuba in the 1990s. This year (2009) sees a two-stage special conference (50 Years of the Cuban Revolution: Pensando y repensando la Revolución) in Havana (July) and Nottingham (September).

The Forum runs an annual postgraduate workshop, aimed principally at those postgraduates working on Cuba in the UK who do not necessarily have a Cuba-specialising supervisor or whose university library does not possess many Cuba-specific resources. The workshop has operated by bringing those postgraduates (and the Forum-based students) together, whatever their academic disciplines, and, through targeted themes, enabling them to share practical advice and information on the particular challenges of researching on and in Cuba. One outcome of this enterprise has been a high level of correspondence and communication between research students who might otherwise find themselves working in isolation.

The Forum has also signed a number of cooperation agreements with Cuban academic and research institutions, such as the Centro de Estudios Martianos and the Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística, enabling those associated with the Forum to have easier access to the resources of such institutions.

Finally, in 2007, the long-standing plan to create a research centre within the Forum took shape with the establishment of the Centre for Research on Cuba. This is essentially the core body of researchers, consisting of the academic staff and postgraduates working on Cuba in the University of Nottingham. There are currently six full-time academic staff (in history, literature, medicine, cultural studies and built environment), one Post-Doctoral Fellow (history), two Visiting Researchers (literature and visual art) and eight doctoral students (three having graduated since 2007), with two more starting in 2009. The activities of the Centre consist of the annual multi-disciplinary seminar series (six seminars in 2007-8 and the same in 2008-9) along with monthly postgraduate-focussed seminar-workshops.

As things stand, plans are being made with the University of Nottingham to take both the Centre and the Forum to a new level of operation, with collaborative research projects being set up with the University of Havana. This development, along with other links being cultivated, aims at bringing more Cuban colleagues to the UK as well as enabling Forum members and postgraduates to have even greater access to resources and colleagues in Cuba. Despite changes within the Cuban higher education system in recent months, it is hoped that these developments will continue apace, given the Centre's and Forum's well-established name and standing within Cuban academic, intellectual and cultural circles.