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The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI) is an interdisciplinary research unit of the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...
devoted to the study of Dominicans in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and other parts of the world, including the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
. The Institute is housed at The
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
in Upper
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, a campus bordered by the City's historic Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods, which are home to the largest concentration of Dominicans in the country. The current director of the institute is sociologist Ramona Hernández.


Mission and goals

The missions of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute are, generally, (1) To gather, produce, and disseminate academic knowledge, from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives, on the experiences of people in the United States who trace their ancestry to the Dominican Republic; and (2) To advance research and teaching at the City University of New York, focusing on the Dominican population.About the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute
. Accessed April 14, 2008.
The Institute sponsors academic research projects in the areas of education, race,
migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...
,
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
,
literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
, history,
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...
, women's issues, politics,
youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...
,
cultural identity Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct cultu ...
, sports, performance and visual arts.


History

The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute was founded in 1992 by the Council of Dominican Educators, community activists, and other
academics An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
from CUNY, to address the lack of reputable information on Dominicans available to students, scholars, and the community at large in the United States. It is the first university-based research institution in the United States focusing on the study of Dominican life outside of the Dominican Republic. CUNY DSI began as a
pilot project A pilot study, pilot project, pilot test, or pilot experiment is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research p ...
in August 1992, with a development grant made available by CUNY’s
Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
. It was officially approved by the
Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit org ...
at its February 22, 1994 meeting, and soon became an integral component of the City University of New York. Since its inception, the Institute has sponsored more than 80 conferences and symposia on diverse topics in various disciplines, bringing
scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
s at different stages of their careers to exchange knowledge and ideas on various aspects of the Dominican experience. The events are attended by audiences of students, faculty, and community residents. The Institute promotes a linkage between the academy and the community, and has encouraged the participation of members of the community in all its public events, allowing the latter to have the opportunity to participate in a dialogue that is usually reserved for academics. Through its
original research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...
published in
monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monogra ...
s, and its Archives and Library, the Institute also works to increase the visibility of
CUNY The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven prof ...
. In 1997, Dr. Ramona Hernandez, speaking at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, pointed out the continuing demographic changes of the Dominican Americans, especially its increasing
population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...
and
poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse
. In 2007, for its 15th Anniversary, the Institute honored Oscar de la Renta.


Dominican Studies Institute Library

The CUNY-DSI Library is a unique collection whose mission is to identify, collect, organize, and preserve documents on the Dominican experience in the United States. It is the largest collection on Dominicans in the United States. In its possession it has articles, newspaper clippings, master and doctoral dissertations, documentaries, audio-cassettes, conference papers and others on a variety of topics including culture, history, literature, politics, and sociology.


See also

* African American studies * Black studies *
Chicano studies Chicana/o studies, also known as Chican@ studies, originates from the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, and is the study of the Chicana/o and Latina/o experience. Chican@ studies draws upon a variety of fields, including history, socio ...
*
Latino studies Latino studies is an academic discipline which studies the experience of people of Latin American ancestry in the United States. Closely related to other ethnic studies disciplines such as African-American studies, Asian American studies, and ...
*
List of academic disciplines An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge, taught and researched as part of higher education. A scholar's discipline is commonly defined by the university faculties and learned societies to which they belong and the ac ...
* Native American studies


References


External links

*
Dominican American National Roundtable literature web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuny Dominican Studies Institute City University of New York research institutes