Samuel Martinez

Associate Professor

Department of Anthropology

El Instituto


Born in Cuba, Dr. Samuel Martinez is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, core faculty member in El Instituto and Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Human Rights Institute. His research areas include the Caribbean, African diaspora, migration and human rights. He is editor of a contributory volume, International Migration and Human Rights, and author of Decency and Excess: Global Aspirations and Material Deprivation on a Caribbean Sugar Plantation (2007). Two of his courses, “The History of the Caribbean” and “Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean,” include topics in Cuban history, culture and society. The former examines issues that relate to slavery and freedom, colonialism and anti-colonialism, citizenship and nation-building, political economy, cultures and movements, and migration and immigration from a historical perspective. The latter includes colonization and nation formation, geography and the environment, migration and immigration, race, ethnicity and gender in society, politics, economy and culture.