 |
| Dr.Verene Sheperd |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS (12TH JUNE 2007) – The St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission for UNESCO in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture is pleased to announce that Lecture 2 of the Cry Freedom Distinguished Lecture Series will be taking place on Wednesday, 25th July 2007 at 7:30 pm at the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. The Lecture Series is part of the commemorative activities that have been organized to celebrate the Bi-centenary of the Abolition of the British Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Mr. Antonio Maynard, Secretary General of the UNESCO National Commission is extending a warm invitation to the General Public to come out and participate in what he is confident would be a most insightful, motivating and engaging presentation by the distinguished Dr. Verene Shepherd, Professor of Social History at the University of the West Indies. Professor Shepherd will be delivering on the theme “In Our Own Words: In Search of a More Liberating and Self-Affirming Caribbean Identity”.
Mr. Maynard has remarked “the topic for this lecture is quite appropriate and timely because it speaks to the important role of cultural identity in shaping the way forward in regional integration. The fundamental ideology of this movement must be founded on a regional identity, focusing on the creation of a distinctly Caribbean person. Who that person will be depends upon us as descendants of strong and resilient Caribbean people who overcame the chattels and deprivations of our slavery and colonial past to now come full circle and overturn some of the age-old stereotypes about the Caribbean and Caribbean people”.
Dr. Shepherd, in her lecture, will expound on the direct correlation between cultural identity – the way in which we define and see ourselves – and the values and attitudes that we display to each other and to the world. She will trace the impact that slavery and British colonialism have had on this notion of common identity. This identity, though bolstered by a history of years of slavery and oppression, has also become distorted over the years through the many processes, institutions and mechanisms of the British imperial system.
About Dr. Shepherd:
Verene A. Shepherd, Chair of the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee, is Professor of Social History at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies. She holds the B.A. and M.Phil. degrees in History from the UWI and the PhD in History from the University of Cambridge. ~~Adz:Right~~
She is the author, editor, compiler and co-editor of several publications dealing with slavery, emancipation, gender, and Asian labour migration and settlement. Among these publications are Transients to settlers: the experience of Indians in Jamaica, 1845-1950 (1994); Women in Caribbean History (I999); Working Slavery, Pricing Freedom: perspectives from the Caribbean, Africa and the African diaspora (2002); Maharani’s Misery: narratives of a passage from India (2002); Slavery without Sugar: diversity in Caribbean economy and society (2002); (with Glen Richards) Questioning Creole: creolisation discourses in Caribbean culture ( 2002); (with Bridget Brereton & Barbara Bailey) Engendering History: Caribbean women in Historical Perspective (1995) and (with Hilary Beckles) Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World (2000) and Caribbean Freedom (1993). Her most publications are I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica (2007) and two bicentenary publications, Trading Souls and Saving Souls co-authored with Hilary Beckles.
Prof. Shepherd is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, President of the Association of Caribbean Historians and Second Vice President of the Jamaica Historical Society.
