Warwick Transatlantic Fellowships

Warwick Transatlantic Fellowships launched


The University of Warwick's Humanities Research Centre has launched a new scheme aiming to deepen and broaden research links between Warwick and universities in the US and the Caribbean.

Five Warwick Transatlantic Fellowships worth $2,000 will be available for US and Caribbean-based post-doctoral fellows who wish to spend a short period at the University of Warwick, working with a Warwick-based academic.

One Fellowship is reserved for Caribbean-based scholars and applications from the region are strongly encouraged.

The Fellowships are jointly funded by the Humanities Research Centre, the Institute of Advanced Study, the EPSRC, and the Yesu Persuad Cantre for Caribbean Studies.

The deadline for applications is 15 January 2013.

For further information: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/events/wtf

Call for applications: Bridget Jones Travel Award

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

 

 

Arts researchers or practitioners living and working in the Caribbean are eligible to apply for the Bridget Jones Travel Award, the deadline for which is the 14th January 2013. The winner of the award will present their work at the 37th Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference, which is scheduled to be held at the University of Warwick from the 3rd - 5th July 2013.

 

Eligibility

 

If you are an arts practitioner living and working in any region of the Anglophone, Hispanic, Francophone or Dutch speaking Caribbean, you may apply for the Award. The successful recipient will receive £650 towards travel expenses and, in addition, a full bursary to cover conference fees and accommodation. Applications are especially welcome from individuals with no institutional affiliations. We encourage applications from across the arts: from visual artists, performers, creative writers, film-makers, folklorists, playwrights etc.

 

How To Apply

 

To apply for the Award you must submit the following:

• A covering letter
• Curriculum vitae (no more than 4 sides of A4)
• Statements from 2 referees who are able to comment on your work 

AND either

  

(a) A proposal for a presentation of your work in the areas of film, literature, visual or performing arts.

or

(b) A proposal for a reading of original creative work.

 

Presentations normally last for up to one hour, including time for questions from the audience. The most important part of your application will therefore be a full description of the proposed presentation detailing the themes and rationale behind the presentation, as well as how the presentation will be organised and any props required (e.g. if intending to screen clips of films; show slides of artwork; incorporate live performance etc).

 

Applications and enquiries should be sent by e-mail to Eva Sansavior Eva.Sansavior@ul.ie

  

Completed applications must be received by 14th January 2013. A decision will be made by the committee in late January.

 

For more information on the Bridget Jones Travel Award and the Society for Caribbean Studies, visit the Society website on www.caribbeanstudies.org.uk

Workshop: 'Obeah Histories: Exploring Caribbean Lives under Colonial Laws' , 25 January 2013

'Obeah Histories: Exploring Caribbean Lives under Colonial Laws'
25 January 2013

Organised as part of the AHRC-funded project 'Spiritual Politics in Caribbean History' based at Newcastle University and run in conjunction with The National Archives, UK, this half-day workshop explores histories of Caribbean religion and its suppression from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

Participants will explore original archival documents as well as look at images from The National Archives' Caribbean through a Lens project. The session focuses on Caribbean people’s practice of African-oriented religion and healing. Drawing on legislation and the stories of individuals who faced prosecution, we will investigate practices that were made illegal through colonial laws against ‘Obeah’ and against ‘Shouters’ (the Spiritual Baptist religion).


Venue: The National Archives, UK

Date: Friday, 25 January 2013 from 1pm until 5pm

For more information, venue details, and to book a place, visit http://obeahhistories.eventbrite.co.uk

Event at Warwick University: Thomas Glave - Scenes from a Jamaican Childhood

Jointly hosted by

Warwick University’s Hispanic Studies department and the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies

Thomas Glave - Scenes from a Jamaican Childhood
Thursday 22 November, Ramphal Building R.0.14, 5.30 pm

This presentation will journey through meditations on coming of age, social class, gender, sexuality, and relationships with the dead in Jamaica, by way of the author's personal reflections.

Thomas Glave’s most recent work appears in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Callaloo, and in several anthologies, including Kingston Noir and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, both published in 2012. Glave has been Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT, and is a 2012 Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

Thomas Glave is editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Lambda Literary Award, 2008).

He is the author of Whose Song? and Other Stories; Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (Lambda Literary Award, 2005), and The Torturer’s Wife (Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist, 2008). Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh is forthcoming from Akashic Books in summer 2013: http://www.akashicbooks.com/amongthebloodpeople.htm


This event is free and open to all.

For any inquiries, please contact Fabienne Viala: F.Viala@warwick.ac.uk

Commonwealth Scholarships – Trinidad and Tobago

Commonwealth Scholarships – Trinidad and Tobago


The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has invited the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission to nominate two candidates for Commonwealth Scholarships for Master’s and PhD study.

The scholarships are tenable at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine or the University of Trinidad and Tobago for the academic year commencing September 2013.


Eligibility

Citizens of Commonwealth countries other than Trinidad and Tobago
•Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Scholarships 2013 prospectus – includes full terms and conditions and eligibility criteria
Further information can also be found on the Scholarships and Advanced Training Division website.

Please note that the 30 November deadline given in the prospectus is for nominations to reach Trinidad and Tobago, not for applications to the CSC.

How to apply

•Application form

Your application form and one copy (two in total) must be sent in hard copy with supporting documents to:

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK (HA)
c/o The Association of Commonwealth Universities
Woburn House
20-24 Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9HF

The closing date for receipt of applications is 29 October 2012.

Please note that candidates nominated to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago will be required to complete an online application form.

For further information about the scholarship eligibility criteria and how to apply, email csfpout@acu.ac.uk

Jamaica and the Caribbean: Beyond the Boundary

Jamaica and the Caribbean: Beyond the Boundary
Fri 2 Nov - Sun 4 Nov at the Watershed, Bristol



This three day celebration of 50 years of independence for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago kicks off with a one-day public conference featuring guests including Rupert Lewis (Professor in Political Thought, University of the West Indies, Jamaica) and Gavin Nicholas (High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago.) Join them for a reflection on the political, cultural and economic development of these countries since independence but also their impact on the Caribbean Diaspora in Bristol and the UK.

Over the weekend, there will be talks (by Colin Grant and Andrea Stuart), poetry and screenings including Blood and Fire, a history of Jamaica’s struggle for independence and Omnibus: Beyond a Boundary, a reflection by the great Trinidadian intellectual CLR James on the influence of cricket on Caribbean society. Sit back and relax on Sunday with Sounds from the Caribbean; a double-bill of Calypso Dreams featuring Harry Belafonte, The Mighty Sparrow and Singing Sandra followed by Reggae, the first feature-length film financed by Black people in Britain.

Co-curated by Dr Edson Burton and Dr Peter Clegg presented by Watershed and UWE in partnership with Festival of Ideas and Afrika Eye Festival.

Further details including on how to book tickets can be found at: http://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/season/216/jamaica-and-the-caribbean-beyond-the-boundary/

Gender and History in the Americas seminar series

‘Gender and History in the Americas’ is a new seminar series at the Institute for Historical Research, London.
Held at 17.30 on the first Monday of the month from October 2012, the series offers a forum for speakers to present research investigating women’s and gender history from a hemispheric perspective that stretches from Canada to Argentina, Mexico to the Caribbean. The presentation of works-in-progress and contributions from postgraduate and early career scholars are particularly encouraged, reflecting our desire to create a series in which new and cutting-edge ideas can be shared and discussed in an intellectual and supportive environment.


1st October 2012 Jay Kleinberg (Brunel University): Cigars and Politics: An Intersectional and Transnational Approach to Cuban Women's Immigration and Work in the United States, 1880-2000 Senate House Montague Room (Room 26)

5th November 2012 Nadja Janssen (Independent Scholar): ‘The Ruin is Irreversible’: Female Voices in the Anti-Feminist Backlash, 1970 – Present
Senate House Holden Room (Room 103)

3rd December 2012 Helen Glew (University of Westminster): Ladies, legislation and letters to Lester Pearson: policy and debates about married women's right to work in Canada, 1945-1970
Stewart House STB5

7th January 2013 Althea Legal-Miller (Independent Scholar): “Mistreated and Molested”: Jailhouse Violence and the Civil Rights Movement
Senate House Torrington Room (Room 104)

4th February 2013 Beverley Duguid (RHUL): A Jamaican Odyssey: Nancy Prince’s Travels to Jamaica in 1840
Stewart House STB5

4th March 2013 Imaobong Umoren (Postgraduate student): ‘No more must we be regarded as toys- but women of foresight, strength and skill’: Black Women, Intellectual Connections and Travel across Europe and the Americas 1920s-1940s
Stewart House STB5

Please note there will be no seminar in April and May due to Bank Holidays

3rd June 2013 Dawn-Marie Gibson (RHUL): In Our Own Voices: Modest Models Inc
Senate House Torrington Room (Room 104)

Convenors:
Professor Jay Kleinberg (Brunel University), Dr Rachel Ritchie (Brunel University), Dr Inge Dornan (Brunel University), Dr Lee Sartain (Portsmouth University), Dr Dawn-Marie Gibson (RHUL), Ms Imaobong Umoren (King’s College London), Dr Sinead McEneaney (Saint Mary’s University College),  Dr Natalie Zacek (University of Manchester)

For further information, contact the Society for the History of Women in the Americas shawsociety@gmail.com

Caribbean Research Seminar in the North

An Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on the Caribbean and its Diasporas, in association with the Society for Caribbean Studies

FRIDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2012
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

PROGRAMME

Lara Putnam (History, University of Pittsburgh): “Citizenship at the Edge of Empire: The (Caribbean) Colonial Context of Arendt and Marshall, 1924-1948"

Kate Houlden (English, University of Surrey): “The Plantation and the Popular: Edgar Mittelholzer's Kaywana Trilogy”

Parvathi Kumaraswami (Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies, University of Manchester): “Testimonial Culture and the Cuban Revolution: Its Function in Social Construction and Integration”

Kristy Warren (Sociology, University of Warwick): “Bermuda Today”

Registration is free, but please let us know in advance if you would like to attend, as places will be limited. A reservation for dinner at a local restaurant will be made for 6:30 p.m., so please indicate if you would like to come to dinner. To register, contact Natalie Zacek natalie.a.zacek@manchester.ac.uk

A few bursaries are available to cover travel costs within the U.K. for postgraduate students attending this event. To apply, please contact Henrice Altink henrice.altink@york.ac.uk stating your topic, university, and the name and address of your supervisor.

Travel directions to the University of Manchester can be found here: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/travel/ .

CONF: Caribbean Food Cultures

Caribbean Food Cultures: Representations and Performances of Eating, Drinking and Consumption in the Caribbean and Its Diasporas

 

28th to 29th September 2012 at the University of Heidelberg, Germany

 

http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/md/transculturality/food_cultures_final.png

 

Confirmed Keynote Speakers are:

• Professor Rita de Maeseneer (Antwerp) “The Aesthetics of Hunger and the Special Period in Cuba”
• Professor Fabio Parasecoli (New York) “Representations of Caribbean Food in US Popular Culture”

In the Caribbean, food and drinks as products and as acts or performances play a crucial role in various areas of human behavior and interaction: for the self-preservation of the body, as ethnic, religious and national identity markers, in the context of local and global commercial relationships, or regarding the fair allocation of food and relations of production. These biological, social, economic, historical and ethnic dimensions have taken a special turn in the Caribbean – a region that has been heavily influenced by migration.

 

Thus, on the one hand, colonizers, slaves, contract workers, privateers and refugees were components of specific historical relations of production and trade. On the other hand, these different groups of people brought along social, cultural and economic practices related to food, consumer and luxury goods, which were subject to change and (or) hybridization. In the course of decolonization, emigration and tourism these goods and food, in turn, are being re-imported into the former European “motherlands” and North America.

 

The aim of this conference is to explore acts or performances that are related to the production, consumption and the symbolism of food and nutrition in the Caribbean and its diasporas from the perspectives of cultural, social and behavioral sciences. Particular attention will be paid to contemporary and transnational perspectives. These, for example, can be concerned with the social or religious significance of food, abstinence, rituals of exchange and preparation as well as the exchange of culinary traditions and ingredients on the internet. Of further interest are national and transnational representation practices of eating and drinking in literature, popular culture and new media, such as the advertisement of Caribbean products in the region and the diasporas and the symbolic or metaphorical usage of “ethnic food” and its consumption in narrative literature and song lyrics.

 

Conference Venue:

 

Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg (IWH), Hauptstraße 242 http://www.iwh.uni-hd.de/index_engl.html

 

Please contact foodcultures@gmail.com if you would like to register.

 

Organizers: Junior Research Group “From the Caribbean to North America and Back”, Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg

 

For further information visit:  http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/transculturality/karibik-nordamerika_en.html

Slavery and Revolution - new resource partly based on our archives

We're pleased to promote a new resource, developed by Dr Christer Petley, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Southampton

Slavery and Revolution, is an internet resource for research about Jamaica and Atlantic slavery in the Age of Revolution, which uses a blogging format to showcase excerpts from letters written by Simon Taylor (1738-1813), a slaveholder and plantation owner who lived in Jamaica during a period characterised by revolution, war, and imperial reform.   Taylor wrote from Jamaica to friends, family members, business associates, and political allies in Britain. The letters showcased were written between the 1770s and Taylor’s death. These were years of uncertainty and change for all the inhabitants of the British Caribbean, enslaved and free. They included rebellions and resistance by enslaved people, hurricanes, drought, disruption to trade, the rise of the British abolition movement, the French and Haitian Revolutions, war between Britain and France, the Second Maroon War, civil rights campaigning by free people of colour, and the abolition of the slave trade.
Taylor’s worldview was that of a slaveholder. He perceived Africans as inferior to Europeans and believed that it was his right to treat Africans and their descendants as property, as slaves who he could buy, sell, and put to work as he pleased. He generally saw enslaved people not as human beings but as a source of labour. His comments can make for uncomfortable reading. Nevertheless, his letters are important sources for historical research because of the new light that they can shed on a number of themes, including transformations to empire and slavery during the Age of Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century.

The original copies of these letters are held in the UK at Cambridge University Library and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library. The transcriptions appear here with the kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library. Each excerpt is accompanied by the full reference to the item from which it has been drawn in the Vanneck-Arcedeckne collection in Cambridge University Library or the Taylor Family Papers in the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library

The website is a free resource, open to anyone. Its contents are intended for use by academics, students, and others to use in their research, teaching, and learning.
Web address: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/slaveryandrevolution/

Follow Slavery and Revolution on Twitter: Slavery & Revolution @SlandRev

Email: c.petley@soton.ac.uk

London Metropolitan Archives Film Club - Caribbean Liberation

Caribbean Liberation


Wednesday 22 August,  6pm-7.30pm

FREE DROP-IN EVENT FEATURING FILMS FROM THE ARCHIVES
London Metropolitan Archives, 40, Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma
August’s Film Club focuses on Caribbean Liberation, drawing upon the LMA’s records of the Huntley’s, revolutionary black publishers. The LMA will be showing two short documentaries:

• ‘In the Sky’s Wild Noise’ (1983) focuses on Walter Rodney, the Guyanese historian and political activist; made 3 years after his murder, the film features Rodney speaking on the workers struggle in Guyana, inter-cut with footage of Guyana and Rodney’s funeral.
• ‘Grenada - Is Freedom We Making’ (1983) focuses on the island and what has happened to it since its 1979 revolution. The documentary examines the economic developments of the nation, the growth of women’s rights and discusses President Reagan’s antipathy toward the nation. The film features interviews with members of farming cooperatives and Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, broadcast just months before he was deposed and executed.

National Archives celebrates 50 years of Caribbean independence

To commemorate 50 years of Jamaican and Trinidadian independence, The National Archives is publishing images from the Colonial Office photographic collection on Flickr, the photo sharing website.


The National Archives will be uploading images from nearly 20 countries from Monday, the anniversary of Jamaica's independence, to 31 August, the anniversary of the independence of Trinidad and Tobago.

Visit the Caribbean collection on Flickr to view the images. New countries will be added each week day, beginning with Antigua (8 August) and the Bahamas (9 August).

The hugely diverse collection spans the colonial period and the National Archives will continue to augment it over the course of this year with images from the Central Office of Information collection (catalogue reference: INF 10) to produce a unique resource for Caribbean history.

Some of images remain unidentified, so if you recognise people, places or incidents not in the descriptions, please let them knows in the comments section below the images

CFP: 45th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians - Belize, May 2013

The 45th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians will be held in Ambergris Caye, Belize, from Sunday, May 12, to Friday, May 17, 2013.


Information about how to propose either an individual paper or a panel, along with the forms for each, is posted online at the ACH website http://www.associationofcaribbeanhistorians.org (look under "Annual Meeting"). There were a record number of new presenters at the 2012 Curaçao conference.

More information about proposed conference topics and information about the ACH prizes (including the Elsa Goveia Book Prize and the Gould-Saunders Memorial Endowment Travel Fund Award) appear online as well under Prizes and Fellowships.

All proposals are due to the ACH Secretary-Treasurer by October 1, 2012.

Americas through a lens - National Archives photographs

You can now view hundreds of Americas photos from the National Archives CO 1069 collection online. They capture scenes from Canada to Belize, Trinidad to the South Shetland Isles, and span more than 100 years.




The images are from the Colonial Office's Photographic Collection and include some of the earliest known photographic depictions of Canada dating back to the 1850s. Some of the images have accompanying background information to give them context, but many do not.

The photographs have been uploaded to the photo-sharing website Flickr so that you can tag and contribute comments and suggestions to help improve the descriptions.

The latest online release of pictures from the Colonial Office collection follows the successful launch last year of Africa through a lens - an online showcase for the African images in the collection. The project was inspired by Project Naming, a Library and Archives Canada (LAC) initiative to help identify Inuit portrayed in its own photographic collection.

Black ephemera: depictions of people of African descent

University of Reading, Centre for Ephemera Studies:
Black ephemera: depictions of people of African descent

 

Wednesday 4 July 2012

 

Nike Theatre, Agriculture Building, University of Reading

10.30 Registration and welcome

Session one - Michael Twyman convenor

 

Introduction to the day, Michael Twyman, Director, Centre for Ephemera Studies

• Patrick Vernon Black Ephemera: consuming stereotypes and identities
• Temi Odumosu The St Giles's "Backbirds": some popular African presences from Georgian and Regency print culture
• Tom Wareham Using and abusing ­ Considering the use of Ephemera in the London, Sugar & Slavery Gallery at the Museum of London Docklands
• Jonathan King Anthropology and ephemera: representing Africa and the Caribbean at the British Museum

Session two - Alison Donnell convenor

• Amoret Tanner Mary Seacole ­ the story behind the iconic carte-de-visite
• Leon Robinson Black Victorian entertainers
• Jeffrey Green Edwardian postcards
• Mary Guyatt Representations of black people in children¹s ephemera 1870-1950

Session three - Patrick Vernon convenor 

• Sandra Shakespeare Caribbean through a lens: Depictions of black people using Photography
• Deborah Sutherland We shall not be silenced: Ephemera as a record of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa
• Stefan Dickers Fighting for Justice: Campaign ephemera in the Bernie Grant Archive
• Zoe Whitley Conspicuous absences: branding and un-branding the black body in Magazine 

Final questions/discussion/thanks and farewell Drinks in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication and the opportunity to see the display of printed ephemera

 

For more information and to register please contact: Diane Bilbey d.j.bilbey@reading.ac.uk

 

Conference grants and funded fellowships - ISA

The Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA), School of Advanced Study, University of London, is delighted to announce the launch of two new funding schemes for the academic year 2012-13. Full details are available by following the links below.

Conference Grants

Applications are now sought for Conference Grants for scholars working on any aspect of the Americas. At least six conferences will be funded under this scheme in 2012-13, to a value of up to £2,200 per conference.Closing date: 1 August 2012.

Funded Fellowships

Applications are now sought for funded Fellowships at the Institute for the Study of the Americas. These Fellowships represent an opportunity for scholars working on any aspect of the Americas to undertake research at ISA for a period of up to eight consecutive months during the academic year. These positions attract a modest monthly stipend and at least two funded Fellowship appointments will be made for 2012-13. Fellows will be free to undertake research using the Institute's facilities, including the library, IT and office accommodation. Fellows will be expected to play an active part in the intellectual life of the Institute and the School, whilst also engaging in its mission to promote and facilitate research by assisting with the editing of ISA publications and convening academic events. It should be noted that, because the School does not participate in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), publications and other research outputs resulting from these Fellowships may be used by the Fellow's 'home' institution as part of its submission to the REF. Closing date: 1 August 2012.

CFP: C.L.R. James's Beyond a Boundary: 50th anniversary conference

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies holds all of the published works of CLR James and an archive collection of papers and correspondence ICS 140 CLR James Papers. We are very pleased to forward this call for papers:

CFP: C.L.R. James's Beyond a Boundary: 50th anniversary conference


University of Glasgow.
Friday 10th and Saturday 11th May, 2013.

With confirmed keynote speakers so far including Mike Brearley (former England Test captain) and Wai Chee Dimock (Yale University)

Regularly cited as one of the great sports books of the twentieth century, C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary (1963) is, by his own famous definition, about far more than cricket. Part-autobiography, part-historical study and part-political-call-to-arms written against the backdrop of the decolonisation struggles, James’ reflections on sport in the Caribbean reach out into a critical account of racism and imperialism, into wider questions of aesthetics and popular culture, and into the struggle for revolutionary social change which was the enduring concern of his life. Crucially, James insisted that such questions were not simply of concern to academics or to experts, but were also a central part of what drew ordinary men and women to sport.

Much loved, and widely read, James’ study has also been the subject of searching criticism: he has been accused, among other things, of a failure of critical judgement in relation to cricket’s role in the moral framework of empire, of a lack of attentiveness to gendered inequalities, and of a naïve faith in the spontaneity of popular political resistance.

This conference is convened on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Beyond a Boundary, with the intention of both celebrating and questioning, drawing out the book’s intellectual legacies and indentifying the issues it leaves unanswered. We would welcome original papers dealing with any aspects of Beyond a Boundary. These might include:

- critical engagement with or reinterpretation of James’ arguments;
- studies of the production and reception of the book itself;
- interpretations, via James, of contemporary sport;
- reflections on the transnational responses to James’ text;
- discussion of Beyond a Boundary within James’ wider corpus;
- papers reporting on the use of James’ insights and methods in social research, in teaching, in journalism or in political activism.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Andy Smith: mailto:andrew.smith.2@glasgow.ac.uk

In keeping with James’ own practice, we would ask potential speakers to avoid unnecessary technical jargon, and to prepare papers intended for a general audience.

Abstracts should be submitted by the end of October 2012.

Already confirmed keynote speakers for the conference are Mike Brearley (former England Test captain and previously President of the British Psychoanalytic Society), and Wai Chee Dimock (Department of English, Yale).

Further keynotes to be announced; to be added to the conference mailing list, please e-mail the address given above.



Conference organisers: Dr. Dave Featherstone (Human Geography, Glasgow); Dr. Chris Gair (English Literature, Glasgow); Dr. Christian Høgsbjerg (History, Leeds Metropolitan); Dr. Andy Smith (Sociology, Glasgow).

Small Axe Essay Competition

The Question of the Social Sciences - A Small Axe Essay Competition

Small Axe is keen to encourage work in the critical and interpretive social sciences. We are interested in the ways in which such disciplines as anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology seek to grapple with the regional and diasporic Caribbean. This interest stems partly from the fact that the social sciences have been central, historically, to the construction of the "Caribbean" as an object of scholarly inquiry, and central therefore to what we understand the problems are that require investigation and interpretation. But in the past several decades there has been a considerable disciplinary upheaval (engendered by the rise, for example, of poststructuralism, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies) such that the character of the social sciences has altered, and perhaps also social science modes of engaging and constructing the Caribbean.

This Small Axe essay competition seeks to encourage scholarship that engages the social sciences in a critical and historically informed way. We welcome manuscripts from across and between the disciplines that interrogate but also mobilize these disciplines. We are especially interested in the work of individuals at early stages in their scholarly careers.

Deadline: 15 November 2012  (the selected essay will be published in Small Axe in 2013)

Length: Not more than 7,000 words

Contact: socialscience@smallaxe.net  For more information visit http://www.smallaxe.net/

Caribbean Public Health in a Historical Perspective: Work–in–Progress Workshop University of York, 26 September 2012

Caribbean Public Health in a Historical Perspective: Work–in–Progress Workshop University of York, 26 September 2012


This workshop brings together historians, who are or will be working on public health in the colonial and independent Caribbean. It provides them with an opportunity to share their project and to get useful feedback from peers about their (proposed) methodology and/or preliminary findings.

Any aspect of public health will be considered but preference will be given to scholars working on the treatment, control and prevention of chronic or communicable diseases.

This is a free event (includes lunch and refreshments) and travel expenses within the UK will be refunded.

If you want to share your (upcoming) work on public health in the Caribbean with your peers, please email Dr. Henrice Altink at henrice.altink@york.ac.uk by 10 August 2012

World Bank Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean

The World Bank Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean


Available at http://sedlac.econo.unlp.edu.ar/eng/statistics.php the World Bank Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean is maintained by CEDLAS (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)

Content covers themes including poverty, trade and finance, education and health, and the millennium development goals, and the database contains information from over 200 household surveys carried out in 25 countries: Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most data covers from 1980 onwards.

The site also has a good selection of poverty maps for individual Latin American countries.