Miami, Jan 14. The Florida International University (FIU, for its acronym in English) has opened the call for a scholarship for Cuban artists, writers, academics and journalists who face “serious threats to their life, liberty and well-being.”
The Scholarship Program for Threatened Cuban Academics in the Humanities, managed by the FIU Cuban Research Institute, will provide “a temporary refuge” for one semester to academics and artists from the Caribbean island who are at risk, as well as their families , as a statement from the university points out.
This program, under which the beneficiaries will receive accommodation, living expenses and academic support, expects to be able to accommodate a total of 12 Cubans over three years, starting in 2023.
The fellowships, made possible by a $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, are aimed at scholars who have faced “serious threats” because their work in literature, the arts or journalism has “challenged the status quo.” in Cuba, according to the director of the Cuban Research Institute, Jorge Duany.
“These threats include the risk of persecution, imprisonment or banishment as a result of the ideas of the academic, public interventions or participation in peaceful demonstrations,” Duany explained in the statement released on Friday and in which it is indicated that this is the first scholarship in USA for threatened Cubans.
Recipients of this scholarship will be asked to give lectures, participate in panel discussions, and organize art exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, and other educational or cultural activities, all of which will be free and open to the public.
Those interested must send the institution the artistic, cultural or academic project that they intend to develop during their stay at FIU, as well as their curriculum and letters of recommendation.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the FIU Cuban Institute a total of one million dollars, following a first grant awarded last August to study Latino identities, specifically those of Cubans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in Miami, the city of New York and Orlando. EFE
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