About this Network
Welcome to H-Caribbean, H-Net’s Network on Caribbean Studies
I. The H-Caribbean Network: Scope, Content, Purpose.
The Caribbean was one of the earliest projects of European colonization in what has now been defined as the "Atlantic World." Academics with diverse intellectual interests have made the field an exciting one in its own right. The region has produced scholars of world class importance including CLR James, Eric Williams, Aime Cesaire, Fernando Ortiz, Kamau Brathwaite, V.S. Naipaul, and Derek Walcott to name only a few of the "contemporary" figures. With the move toward Atlantic and World History, the Caribbean has received increased attention in recent years. From an economic perspective, scholars have shown how the Caribbean was crucial to the making of the Atlantic and modern Western World. From a social and cultural perspective, the region is also an important area of study for those interested in global culture. Waves of European immigrants, the Atlantic Slave trade, and contracted labor from both India and China in the post-emancipation period have been instrumental in shaping the social and cultural development of this region. The processes of immigration affecting the Caribbean are illustrative of the broader movements and migrations of peoples that have been and will continue to be a major part of the growth of immigrant, exile and ethnic enclaves throughout the modern world.
The goals of this network are multiple. Firstly, building on the work done by various associations and programs since the 1960s, one of the objectives of this list is to overcome the linguistic, political, and geographic fragmentation that has traditionally characterized the field and region. Secondly, this network will provide access to debates and discussions on Caribbean studies and act as a resource to academics teaching and researching in associated fields. Scholars from other traditionally defined fields are now looking to the Caribbean as they teach courses on slavery, colonization, and world history. Thus, it is anticipated that this network will have a broad appeal and will be of interest to academics specializing in different but albeit connected fields of study. Thirdly, this network will serve to reinforce the growing awareness of the region as an important and rich area for further research and study. In keeping with current historiographical trends, it is intended that this network will help to move the study of the Caribbean beyond a regional analytical framework and will locate the region within the broader context of modern world history. Finally, this network will provide a meeting place for academics from a number of disciplines thereby facilitating interdisciplinary discussions between academics worldwide.
II. Editors.
H-Caribbean is edited by field experts approved by the network board and certified by H-Net’s Executive Council. The editors serve two-year renewable terms and rotate their duties. Editors are listed in the Network Staff List linked from the network’s front page. The editors will solicit postings through the Commons, will approve new subscriptions, will handle routine inquiries, and and manage submissions. Anyone with suggestions about what H-Caribbean can and might do is invited to send in ideas by writing to the editorial address. The editors will solicit and post newsletter-type information (calls for conferences, for example, or listings of sessions at conventions.) Like all H-Net networks, H-Caribbean is moderated to edit out material that, in the editors' opinion, is not germane to the network mission, involves technical matters (such as subscription management requests), is inflammatory, or violates evolving, yet common, standards of Internet etiquette. Please read section III below for details about ownership, style, formatting, and content of your messages. H-Net's procedure for resolving disputes over editorial practices is Article II, Section 2.02 of our council policies, located at:
http://www.h-net.org/about/policies.php
For a list of current editors, visit: http://networks.h-net.org/node/2881/staffpage
III. Communicating Through the Network.
A. Copyright notice. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. H-Net considers all messages posted to its forums to be a form of publication. Unless otherwise arranged with H-Net, all contributions to H-Caribbean are subject to H-Net’s Terms of Use and its policies concerning copyright and intellectual property, Art. III, Sec. 3.01-3.08 of the H-Net Council Policies. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of H-Net's terms of use. Users of the site verify that they are authorized by copyright holders to submit content to H-Net for publication according to those terms of use, including the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License linked here http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/. Unless otherwise indicated, reviews commissioned by H-Net and published under its imprint are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
A full copy of the H-Net Council Policies and Bylaws and other important information may be found at: http://www.h-net.org/about/.
B. Contributions: The tone and content of H-Caribbean depends directly on subscribers. The editors want to encourage lively, informal, productive discussion and exchange of information. To that end, we ask that contributions be considerate of the needs of a busy audience of scholars, many of whom must pay for their access to the internet. A number of excellent guides to online behavior and style are available on the internet and we invite you consult them.
-- ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NETWORK MUST BE SIGNED. If your profile on the H-Net Commons is not filled out with a valid name and affiliation the editors will delay posting until authorship and email address are confirmed.
-- CONTENT: Editors retain the right to review material for its pertinence, tone, style, and relevance to the list's mission. Ad hominems, unattributed quotations or innuendo, private messages forwarded for posting without permission, or messages that violate the norms of civility and professional courtesy will be rejected. Persistent violators can be removed from the subscription list. H-Net permanently archives its content on the H-Net Commons. Do not submit material that you consider to be of a private nature or that you would not want available to future readers.
-- STYLE: the default editorial style for discussion postings is that of a letter to the editor. Your remarks can be crafted to suit the tone of an existing discussion thread, but in any case they should address the editor and not make direct personal references to others, except where you are replying directly to a simple query (e.g., "you can find this information in Webster's Third International Dictionary."). Avoid excessive quotation of messages you refer or reply to.
-- FORMAT: While you can submit your posts to the Commons using various fonts, styles and formatting these may be edited by the editor for uniformity and readability.
IV. Technical Information.
When you subscribe to the Commons, H-Net will send you a confirmation message containing important information about managing your subscription. For online help with your subscription see http://networks.h-net.org/help-desk, especially the “Getting Started” section. These guides will help you modify your notifications, unsubscribe from the network, change the e-mail address associated with your profile, and use your “My H-Net” page effectively. If you still have questions after reading the guides please email help@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
V. The H-Caribbean Network Site
The H-Caribbean network site contains the following required information and services:
- The archives of the H-Caribbean network discussions and other uploaded content
- The network's official documents: its about page, lists of board members and editors, contact information, and other founding and information documents.
- Hypertext links to resources in our subject: teaching materials, research archives, other networks.
VI. Advisory Board.
H-Caribbean's daily activities are managed by the editors. Its long-term policies are developed by the advisory board. If you are interested in serving on the board, please contact the current editor. Board members referee incoming articles, reviews, and teaching materials; establish basic subscription restrictions and policy; advise the editors on disputes among editors and subscribers; monitor the list and make active contributions to discussion; and serve as the subscribers' voice in H-Net affairs. You are encouraged to contact any or all of the editorial board members with ideas and concerns about H-Caribbean.
For a list of the current advisory board, visit: http://networks.h-net.org/node/2881/staffpage
VII. Our Parent Organization: H-Net
H-Net is an international consortium of scholars in the humanities and social sciences that creates and coordinates electronic networks, using a variety of media, and with a common objective of advancing humanities and social science teaching and research. H-Net was created to provide a positive, supportive, egalitarian environment for the friendly exchange of ideas and scholarly resources.
The goals of H-NET networks are to enable scholars to easily communicate current research and teaching interests; to discuss new approaches, methods and tools of analysis; to share information on electronic databases; and to test new ideas and share comments on the literature in their fields.
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