The perfect team — Jan DeCosmo, Ph.D., Mike Lewis, Samuel Fure Davis, Ph.D.

Prof. Jan DeCosmo, Group Leader

Jan DeCosmo is retired Professor of Humanities in the Department of Visual Arts, Humanities & Theatre at Florida A&M University, where she taught for 37 years. Her undergraduate and master’s degrees were in International Affairs, and her Ph.D. (Florida State University, 1987) was in Humanities, with a dissertation on "The Concept of Alienation in the writings of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Hannah Arendt." Her research and publications include two books, a film and numerous articles on a variety of subjects related to the Caribbean, Bahia (Brazil) and Southwest Louisiana. In addition to humanities survey courses, she has taught art history classes as well as Caribbean Religion & Culture and African Humanities classes. As founder and grants writer for the Center for Caribbean Culture at FAMU, DeCosmo received over $¼ million in funding for a variety of public programs, including film festivals, performing groups, concerts, conferences, and music festivals. For spring break each semester she organized affordable student trips to locations such as New Orleans, the Caribbean, Bahia and Europe (Paris, Barcelona and Florence). She has also led faculty and student trips to Havana, Cuba. After traveling to the Bahamas in 1996 and locating FAMU student (Bahamian) practitioners of the art, she helped found the FAMU Rhythm Rushers Bahamian Junkanoo group. She is an avid collector of music, film and art (the latter primarily from Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and Bahia). DeCosmo has served as president of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA), becoming a lifetime member after attending her first conference in 1993 in Jamaica. Her husband, Mike Lewis, is a musician and composer who has traveled many times to Cuba, and who will assist in the activities once there.

Prof. Samuel Fure Davis, Havana Translator & Liaison

Samuel Fure Davis (Ph.D.) obtained his M.A. in Caribbean Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Havana (1997) and his Doctorate in Arts & Sciences (2006).  He taught Spanish language and translation at the University of Ghana for two years (1989-92) before his current position as professor and chair of the English Department of the School of Foreign Languages, University of Havana, where he teaches Anglo-Caribbean literature, English language (writing skills), and other undergraduate and graduate courses on cultural theory.  He completed a Ph.D. degree in the Higher Institute of Arts in Havana with a dissertation entitled "Rastafari: Una Tendencia Sub-Cultural Alternativa (Rastafari:  An Alternative Sub-Cultural Tendency)" using cultural studies to focus on Rasta ideology, local reggae lyrics, and other factors to redefine this subculture in Cuba.  He published a prize-winning essay titled "Cantos de Resistencia" (Letras Cubanas, Habana, 2000), about dub poetry and reggae lyrics.

Prof Samuel Furé Davis
La Habana. CUBA
Tel. (537) 8796132 Fax (537) 8735930