Bittersweet: A Global Pursuit of Sugar’s Past

Jul 9, 2024

A line of students trek uphill through lush foliage in the Brazilian countryside. The sky is blue and dotted with clouds.

Sugar, Science, and Slavery, a Global Learning Program course, brought first-year students to the valleys of Cuba, the American South, and northeastern Brazil (pictured). (Photo/Mufrad Chowdhury ’27)

Traveling to Cuba, Louisiana, and Brazil, 15 51��appians spent a semester studying the colonial legacy of sugar production.

The spring 2024 Global Learning Program (GLP) course titled Sugar, Science, and Slavery, taught by Professor of Chemistry Mark Levandoski and Assistant Professor of Art History Fredo Rivera, explored not only the commercial history of sugar, but also the lasting impacts of the industry’s deep ties to slavery.

Made possible by gifts to the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) from Susan McCurry ’71 and the Holden Family Foundation, 51��app’s Global Learning Program courses tackle interdisciplinary global issues during a semester-long class and three weeks of site-based learning in multiple countries, regions, or ecosystems.

“As is the goal of all GLP courses, the nature of this class was truly interdisciplinary,” says Levandoski. Spanning history, sociology, architecture, art history, chemistry, and industrial science, the syllabus prepared students for global learning in some of the world’s historic epicenters of sugar production.

A group selfie in front of a blue sky and tall memorial building in a large plaza. — The Sugar, Science, and Slavery class in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución, with the José Martí Memorial behind them. (Photo/Thai Theodoro ’27)

Relics of a Sugar Empire

Over spring break, the class traveled to Cuba, the leading producer of raw sugar in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They visited the countryside’s sugar distilleries and “sugar towns” — constructed by U.S. corporations and now defunct amidst the collapse of Cuban sugar exports — and met with the leaders of grassroots organizations pursuing economic and racial justice in present-day Havana.

Experiential learning in Cuba built upon in-class readings and projects. After a history lecture by a Havana local and the son of a sugar worker, Ka’Lanna Phillips ’27 reflected, “I liked hearing things we learned about on paper in 51��app being spoken about by a resident that lives here in Cuba. I can say, ‘Hey, I knew that. We read about it.’”

I liked hearing things we learned about on paper in 51��app being spoken about by a resident that lives here in Cuba. I can say, ‘Hey, I knew that. We read about it.’

Ka'Lanna Phillips ’27

In Cuba, as in their later trips to New Orleans and Brazil, students observed how the country has grappled with the brutal history of its primary export — and how the touristic gaze has shaped that reckoning. Visits to national monuments, art museums, and with community organizations presented diverse answers to the question: “How do you document a commodity’s complicated past?”

Sheila Muligande ’27 chronicled much of her time in Cuba in a travel journal. She was particularly struck by a meeting with the founders of Regla Soul, a local organization addressing issues in the predominantly Black Regla neighborhood of Havana. “While the founders educated us on their projects, they also exposed many unspoken parts of Cuban history that previous tour guides omitted,” Muligande wrote. “This visit finally helped me understand how the history of slavery in Cuba connected to contemporary communities.”

Two young women sit on the steps of a fountain in a city square in Havana. They are wearing jeans and t-shirts, carrying tote bags, and smiling at the camera. behind them are Spanish colonial style facades. — The class split their time in Cuba between Old Havana, the more urban central Havana, and the Valle de Ingenios (or Valley of the Sugar Mills) outside Trinidad. Bettie Aga ’27 (left) and Sheilla Muligande ’27 (right) in Old Havana. (Photo/Thai Theodoro ’27)

Sugar in the South

After leaving Cuba, Levandoski and Rivera’s class spent a few days studying sugar’s influence in New Orleans. There, they visited the Whitney Plantation, where they compared the presentation of slavery’s history in the American South with that of former plantations in Cuba. Again confronted by the penetration of the touristic gaze, Kyra Pruszinski ’27 wrote, “Whitney reveals its primary target audience to be white Americans ignorant of the history of slavery. This approach inherently prioritizes people who have the luxury of historical ignorance.”

While in New Orleans, students visited the Williams Research Center of the Historic Collection of New Orleans, speaking with archivists about paintings and maps from the collection that they had analyzed earlier in the semester. “It feels so unreal when you witness firsthand artifacts from the classroom in real life!” wrote Muligande.

It feels so unreal when you witness firsthand artifacts from the classroom in real life!

Sheilla Muligande ’27

‘Embodied Experience’

At the end of the spring semester, the class traveled internationally once more, spending a whirlwind week in Brazil. “The Brazil component of the trip allowed us to think about the other sites comparatively,” explains Rivera. “And it was especially exciting because we got to really think through the legacy of sugar at the end of the semester, having studied it so deeply.”

Upon arrival in São Paulo, students visited the Museo Afro-Brazil and the laboratory of one of the leading private companies in sugar cane science. However, most of their time in Brazil was spent in Bahia, a northeastern state and one of the largest sugar-producing regions of the 16th and 17th centuries.

In Bahia, the class visited “quilombos” — communities formed generations ago by runaway slaves from Brazilian sugar plantations. The quilombos blend modern and traditional ways of life to operate as autonomous economic entities, Levandoski explains.

“Going into the quilombo communities where people still live and participating alongside them in their daily activities, the students were tangibly involved,” reflects Rivera. “I think students felt that their time in Brazil was an even more embodied experience.”

What I understand the GLP program to be about — to inspire travel and study elsewhere in the world — our students fully embraced.

Mark Levandoski, professor of chemistry

Three people gather around a sugarcane mill. A stalk of cane is fed through the machine and held on either end by a middle aged man and woman. A student turns the crank to press the cane. — Students make a crushed sugarcane drink called guarapo in Cuba's Valle de los Ingenios. (Photo/Mufrad Chowdhury ’27)

“What I understand the GLP program to be about — to inspire travel and study elsewhere in the world — our students fully embraced,” Levandoski says. “And throughout all of our travels, their enthusiasm for the intention of these trips was undiminished. That says to me a lot about them as individuals and as a group, and it’s something that I think is a success of the GLP program.”

51��app is proud to offer impactful, global learning experiences to students at every stage of their undergraduate career, and the College applauds Levandoski, Rivera, and their students for all that they experienced and accomplished during their travels.

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