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| Association of Caribbean Historians | |
|---|---|
| Name | Association of Caribbean Historians |
| Abbreviation | ACH |
| Formation | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Miami, Florida |
| Fields | Caribbean history |
| Leader title | President |
Association of Caribbean Historians is an international learned society dedicated to scholarship on the history of the Caribbean basin, including the Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and mainland territories. It serves as a forum for researchers from the Caribbean, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Africa, facilitating exchanges across archives in Havana, Kingston, Port-au-Prince, and Santo Domingo. The association often engages with institutions such as the British Museum, the Library of Congress, and the University of the West Indies to support comparative studies of colonialism, slavery, migration, and cultural production.
Founded in 1969 by scholars working in the wake of decolonization and postwar intellectual movements, the organization built on networks associated with Pan-Africanism, Negritude, Black Power movement, Decolonization of Africa, and Caribbean independence movements like those in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados. Early figures connected to its founding included researchers who had worked with archives in Havana, Kingston, Port-au-Prince, and the British Library, and who corresponded with historians at Columbia University, Harvard University, University of the West Indies, and University College London. The ACH responded to scholarly debates sparked by works such as Eric Williams's studies, C. L. R. James's writings, and archival revelations from the Transatlantic slave trade records. Over decades the association engaged with themes raised in conferences linked to the Pan-American Union, Caribbean Studies Association, and regional cultural projects tied to Carifta and the Organization of American States.
The association's mission foregrounds archival research and public history connected to events like the Haitian Revolution, the Spanish-American War, and the Mexican Revolution's Caribbean resonances, as well as long-term processes such as plantation economies influenced by actors in Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Spain. Objectives include fostering comparative scholarship among specialists of the Taíno people, Garifuna, Maroons, and diasporic communities in New York City, Miami, Toronto, and London; supporting work on figures such as Toussaint Louverture, Marcus Garvey, Pedro Albizu Campos, Simón Bolívar, and Derek Walcott; and promoting preservation of collections held at repositories like the National Archives (UK), the Arquivo Nacional (Brazil), and the Archivo General de Indias.
Membership draws professional historians, graduate students, archivists, and museum curators affiliated with institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the British Museum, the Institute of Caribbean Studies, and regional universities such as University of Havana, Universidad de la República (Uruguay), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and University of the West Indies Mona Campus. Governance typically features a president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, and an executive council elected by the membership, with bylaws shaped by precedents from societies such as the American Historical Association and the Royal Historical Society. Committees liaise with grant-making bodies like the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to secure funding for fellowships named in honor of scholars such as Hilary Beckles, Franklin W. Knight, Verene Shepherd, and Denise DeCaires Narain.
The ACH organizes biennial and annual conferences hosted at venues across the Caribbean and diaspora cities including Bridgetown, Port-au-Prince, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Kingston (Jamaica), Santo Domingo, Havana, Miami, Toronto, and London. Panels often engage archival materials from the Archivo General de Indias, the National Archives and Records Administration, and private collections related to families like the Custis-Payne family and merchants connected to the Triangular trade. The association publishes proceedings, edited volumes, and journals that have included contributions on subjects such as the role of the Royal Africa Company, the impact of the Suez Canal on Atlantic trade, and artistic responses by figures like Edouard Glissant and Jean Rhys. Collaborations have linked ACH publications to presses such as Cambridge University Press, Routledge, University of the West Indies Press, and Oxford University Press.
Educational initiatives promote curricular materials for schools and universities, teacher workshops in partnership with ministries in Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Belize, and public programs at museums like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Cuba), and the Museum of London. Oral history projects document testimonies about events such as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the migration waves following Hurricane Hugo, and labor movements tied to the Dockworkers' strikes. Digital outreach includes digitization projects coordinated with the Digital Library of the Caribbean, the Caribbean Memory Project, and institutional repositories at universities such as Yale University, University of Florida, and Colgate University.
The association confers prizes and fellowships recognizing monographs, doctoral dissertations, and public history projects. Awards have honored scholarship on figures including Toussaint Louverture, Marcus Garvey, Derek Walcott, C. L. R. James, and archival work tied to collections in the Archivo General de la Nación (Dominican Republic), the Hoosein family papers, and the British Virgin Islands National Archives. The ACH's prizes are often sponsored by foundations like the Carnegie Corporation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and regional cultural boards such as the Caribbean Cultural Centre and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and are announced at conferences alongside medals and named lectures modeled after honors like the Guggenheim Fellowship and the MacArthur Fellowship.
Category:History organizations Category:Caribbean studies