Bringing together Puerto Rican Scholars, Writers, and Artists to Overcome Divisions

Bridging the Divides  is a multidisciplinary initiative that brings together scholars, writers, and artists from across Puerto Rico and its diaspora to collectively imagine just and sustainable futures for our communities. Through a competitive fellowship program, it supports the creation of groundbreaking publications, media products, and artistic projects that confront our social, political, and geographic divisions—building new frameworks for analysis, advocacy, and action.

The concept of “bridging divides” signals the need to overcome long-standing divisions that have served as roadblocks to the development of Puerto Rican Studies. This includes linguistic, geographic, and ideological divides as well methodological ones. Although Puerto Rican Studies constitutes an intellectual field, most scholars come to the study of Puerto Rico through training in other fields—many of which are still weighed down by outdated canons, and not-yet-decolonized methods. 

To address these challenges, Bridging the Divides fosters collaboration across modes of knowledge production—academic, journalistic, and artistic. By recognizing journalists as public intellectuals and artists as scholars in their own right, the initiative creates a generative space to reimagine Puerto Rico’s future through research, storytelling, and creative practices.

A Mellon-funded Program that Supports Innovative Projects and Collaborative Thinking

With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, Bridging the Divides convened two study groups: the first cohort (2022–2023) focused on the processes and meanings of decolonization, while the second (2023–2024) explored the theme of post-disaster futures.

Although the study groups were primarily convened online, each cohort participated in in-person retreats and public conferences. Gatherings in Puerto Rico and Princeton offered time for deep intellectual exchange, creative collaboration, and relationship-building. Additional trips to New York, New Orleans, and Hawai‘i helped fellows connect local Puerto Rican struggles with broader diasporic experiences. Presentations at academic conferences provided a platform for participants to share and workshop the work developed with Bridging the Divides’ support.

Beyond the collective work of the study groups, Bridging the Divides also offered material and intellectual support for each fellow’s individual project. Over the course of the fellowship year, participants advanced a diverse range of work across fields including architecture, economics, education, music, literature, performance, law, and anthropology. Final products include books, essays, exhibitions, podcasts, interviews, artistic works, and journalistic pieces—each contributing to the broader effort of rethinking Puerto Rico’s place in the world.