Tips to Develop a Research Question for Caribbean Studies assignments
Because Caribbean Studies is an inter- and multidisciplinary field that focuses on a particular region, the Caribbean, searching for articles requires that you plan in advance your search strategy.
On this page, I offer you my tips and strategies on how to find background information about your topic to develop your research question and how to pick your topic and develop keywords to research your topic in our databases.
Image source: Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "A chart of the West Indies, from the latest marine journals and surveys" New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Things to consider when searching for Caribbean Studies topics:
- Determine which region, country, or city you want to focus your research: It is not the same to search for the Caribbean as a region than to search for a specific country, e.g. Jamaica, or a city, e.g. La Havana.
- Focus on regions or subregions (The Caribbean, West Indies, Southwest Caribbean, etc.) to study phenomena that affect the region, e.g. globalization; corruption, neoliberal policies, human rights
- Develop a research question from the subject area that you want to use to understand the region or country you selected, e.g. Political Sciences; Human Rights; Women's Studies, History
- Create a list of synonyms on your topic: You can use your syllabus or textbook to find some preliminaries keywords. Pay attention to what phrases scholars used to describe the topic you are interested in. Research terminology change through time.
Be aware that current topics (less than two years old) will have less academic, scholarly articles than older topics. If you want to find the most recent information about your topic, especially if it is connected with a real event such as social protests, natural and man-made disasters, human rights violations, etc. check any of our newspapers' databases.
If you are new to Caribbean Studies, I recommend checking encyclopedias and other reference sources to acquire background information to help develop your research question. Also, check our Newspapers' Databases to learn more about current topics! If you need help, contact me!
- ProQuest News and Newspapers Databases This link opens in a new windowTo understand current topics, it is highly recommended to read news articles to get a better understanding of a particular topic, e.g. immigration, globalization, social movements, etc. UCSB has access to most major journals in the US (both current and historical issues). You can see news about the Caribbean. Note: Just remember that this news is from U.S. perspective. If you want to understand how Caribbean people report their news, visit specific countries' local newspapers.
Here are some recommended titles:
- NACLA Report on the Americas
The NACLA Report on the Americas is the oldest and most widely read progressive journal covering Latin America and its relationship with the United States. This is an excellent journal to learn about current issues happening in Latin America & the Caribbean as well as to explore the reporting of historical events since 1967.
- Oxford Bibliographies in Latin American Studies This link opens in a new windowThis database offers articles that focus specifically on Latin American and Caribbean Studies, which covers a vast range of disciplinary perspectives, including history, sociology, economics, anthropology, and political science. The resources also cover indigenous people from the Americas. The articles also include a bibliography that you can use to learn more about any given topic.
- Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History This link opens in a new windowAtlantic studies the interactions between the peoples and cultures on four continents (Africa, Europe, North America, and South America) and many islands from the Canary Islands near Africa to the Caribbean islands and to Bermuda in the North Atlantic. Time period: between Columbus’ voyages to the New World in the late fifteenth century and the end of slavery in the Americas in the late nineteenth century.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowA collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies from 1492 - 2007. You can explore documentation about the Spanish and Portuguese empire in the Americas, including the Caribbean, and Asia.