About the Caribbean IRN

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The Caribbean Region of the International Resource Network (Caribbean IRN) connects academic and community-based researchers, artists, and activists around the Caribbean and its diasporic communities in areas related to diverse sexualities and genders.

The IRN was originally housed at CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at the City University of New York, funded through the Ford Foundation (2007 – 2011). The Caribbean Region of the IRN continues to operate a network autonomously, and our projects can be found online through this blog that features our monthly updates and the course materials for “Advanced Critical Sexuality Studies” short course.

Our first collection Theorizing Homophobias in the Caribbean: Complexities of Place, Desire, and Belonging (www.caribbeanhomophobias.org) launched in June 2012 and features a multimedia collection of activist reports, creative writing, critical essays, film, interviews, music, and visual and performance art. Theorizing Homophobias offers ways to define and reflect on the complexities of homophobias in the Caribbean, while also expanding awareness about Caribbean sexual minority lives, experiences, and activism in the region and its diaspora. The Caribbean IRN archives are located online with the Digital Library of the Caribbean (www.dloc.org/icirn) with a major highlight of the collection being the Gay Freedom Movement in Jamaica Archives.

 Love | Hope | Community: Sexualities & Social Justice in the Caribbean (Online Multimedia Edition) is the second online collection by the Caribbean IRN presented with Sargasso Journal. The online edition features a selection from the print issue, namely essays, reports, and creative writing from Sargasso Special Issue 2014-15, as well as the curated collection Write It In Fire: Tributes to Michelle Cliff, which includes creative, personal, and artistic reflections on the life and legacy of Cliff.


This online collection also launches new materials, resources, and an e-knowledge portal focusing on Caribbean Sexualities.

These three interactive digital projects will be shared in the coming months: a digital map of Caribbean LGBTI (sexual minority) organizations; a timeline of Caribbean LGBTQI stories, activism, events, gatherings, etc.; and an e-knowledge portal as an online space for sharing community, creative, and academic resources.

The countries which we are covering as part of the Caribbean region are  Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize,Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana,Montserrat, Sint Maarten, St Martin, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St Eustasius, Netherland Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States of America Virgin Islands, Haiti, Jamaica and Martinique

 Caribbean IRN co-directors are Rosamond S. King and Angelique V. Nixon
Caribbean IRN web designer & content manager Vidyaratha Kissoon.

For more information about our projects and continued work, join our Facebook Group, follow our blog, and/or email us at caribbeanirn@gmail.com.

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