Readers can now explore the January-June 2026 issue of Caribbean Studies, the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras journal, with a major dossier examining LGBTQIA+ life, activism, migration and belonging across the region. The collection matters because it moves beyond familiar debates and centres Caribbean voices, histories and creative resistance.

Essential Takeaways

  • New issue available: Volume 54, Number 1 covers January to June 2026.
  • Major themed dossier: Seven contributions examine Caribbean LGBTQIA+ experiences beyond narrow discussions of homophobia.
  • Multilingual scholarship: The journal publishes work in English, Spanish and French.
  • Wide disciplinary range: Essays span migration, religion, education, activism, performance, politics and community life.
  • Additional research included: The regular section looks at Cuba, Puerto Rico's economy, queer performance and anti-gentrification activism.

A Caribbean journal puts LGBTQIA+ lives at the centre

The strongest feature of the new Caribbean Studies issue is its decision to treat LGBTQIA+ life as a broad social and cultural question, not simply a debate about prejudice. The special dossier, titled “Beyond Homophobia”, brings together seven pieces that look at identity, belonging, activism, migration, education and spiritual life.

That wider lens gives the collection its energy. Rather than presenting the Caribbean as a single experience, the issue follows the region's differences and tensions, from Jamaica and Guyana to Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean diaspora. The University of the West Indies has also highlighted the importance of centring LGBTQ+ experiences in anglophone Caribbean scholarship, a useful reminder that visibility and interpretation aren't the same thing.

Migration, faith and belonging get a closer look

Several contributions explore what happens when sexuality, nationality and movement overlap. Keith E. McNeal's essay considers trans Caribbean migration and the fragmented realities created by borders, while R. Anthony Lewis examines debates around nationhood, secularisation and homosexuality in Caribbean and African Catholic contexts.

Those themes feel especially relevant at a time when migration stories are often reduced to statistics or policy arguments. Here, movement is also emotional and political: it can mean escape, reinvention, dislocation or a search for somewhere to belong. That makes the dossier valuable well beyond queer studies, particularly for readers interested in Caribbean identity and diaspora life.

The issue connects scholarship with practical cultural work

The collection isn't confined to theory. One article examines Soar Caribbean and SASOD Guyana, organisations using small-screen digital spaces for learning and relearning. Its focus on education and representation suggests how media can become a modest but meaningful meeting place, especially where conventional institutions leave gaps.

Another contribution looks at LGBTQ advocacy and activism in Jamaica, including the challenge of confronting patriarchal structures. These essays are likely to interest campaigners, teachers and community organisers as much as university researchers. The work has a grounded feel: change is shown not as a neat institutional process, but as something built through persistence, collaboration and sometimes sheer tiredness.

Literature, performance and conversation broaden the picture

The dossier also includes Thomas Glave's evocative “The Sea, the Sun, and the Earth Speak of Us Once Again”, alongside a conversation between Myriam J. A. Chancy and Natália Affonso on Haiti. Together, those pieces underline the journal's willingness to move between academic analysis, literary expression and dialogue.

That approach is one of Caribbean Studies' enduring strengths. The journal, published by the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, has worked across the social sciences and humanities since 1961. Its publisher profile on JSTOR reflects that long-standing multidisciplinary role, while the new issue shows how scholarship can remain rigorous without becoming cold or airless.

The regular articles add political and historical depth

Beyond the special dossier, Volume 54, Number 1 includes studies of post-Special Period Cuba, Puerto Rico's economic debates in the early 1930s and contemporary queer performance. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes' article on cuir language and performance in Puerto Rico is particularly notable for bringing linguistic creativity and live cultural expression into the conversation.

The issue closes its listed contents with a review of community resistance to gentrification in Los Filtros, Guaynabo. That pairing is telling. Questions of sexuality, language, economics and land may appear separate on paper, but they meet in everyday arguments over who gets to live, speak and feel at home in a place.

For students, researchers and curious readers, the issue offers a rich route into Caribbean studies without pretending the region has one tidy story. The articles are available through Project MUSE, while information on print subscriptions is provided by the University of Puerto Rico.

Explore the issue for scholarship that treats Caribbean identity as complex, contested and vividly alive.

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