History

The Interuniversity Consortium for Research Training in the Caribbean was founded in early 1966. Administered by the Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM) in New York City, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, the Consortium developed a collaborative approach to extend scientific knowlege of the Caribbean and to improve the quality of research focused on this area.

Supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation, the Consortium began a sponsorship of research training programs in the summer of 1966. 26 social science graduate students from Brandeis University, McGill University, University of Montreal and Stanford University participated in the field training program during the summer of 1966. Special grants were made available to advanced students working with the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Guadeloupe, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. The North American universities provided pre-field seminars on Caribbean studies and post-field seminars for thesis preparation. In addition, UWI conducted a summer workshop on Caribbean society for students who required more basic grounding.

The Consortium was formed with several goals in mind, including interest in furthering inter-national academic collaboration and developing standards of ethics for fieldwork in the social sciences. The North American universities participating as full members of the Consortium agreed that students being sent to the Caribbean for their first fieldwork under Consortium auspices enroll in graduate training in research methods and participate in a seminar on the nature of Caribbean society. The Universities organized their teaching programs so that the knowledge and experiences of one group of trainees were passed on to the next group. The universities also agreed to provide supervisors of research, to participate in scholarly interchanges involving the return of findings to the host countries, to distribute these findings to other member universities and to provide fellowship opportunities for West Indian students who were studying abroad. Finally, conferences were held at the participating North American and Caribbean universities where research and training plans were coordinated.