Professor Marshall received a Bachelor of Arts with (Hons) in History and Political Science (1991) and a Master of Philosophy in Political Science (1993), from The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. He started doctoral studies at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom in April 1994, achieving a Ph.D. in International Political Economy in June 1996, a period of two years, two months – for which he remains one of their outstanding international alumni and record holder in the Newcastle University’s Department of Politics!
Don Marshall began his career at the Cave Hill Campus in August 1996 in the Department of Government, Sociology and Social Work as a Temporary Lecturer. One year later, he was appointed as Research Fellow at the renowned Institute of Social and Economic Research, later renamed the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies or SALISES.
The Institute is also the home of the Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies, and the older and distinguished Social and Economic Studies (produced out of SALISES Mona), two of the leading academic journals of Caribbean social science research. Professor Marshall sits on the editorial boards of the JECS and other key scholarly journals such as The University of Helsinki’s Globalisations and The University of London’s Progress in Development Studies. He has also served as reviewer of several manuscripts for several journals and academic publishers.
Marshall would have been granted indefinite tenure by The UWI in 2002; and was successful in his application and review for promotion to Senior Research Fellow in 2005. Over the course of his career he has authored Caribbean Political Economy at the Crossroads: NAFTA and Regional Developmentalism - published by Palgrave Macmillan; co-authored two edited collections – “The Empowering Impulse: The Nationalist Tradition of Barbados (University of West Indies Press) and “Living at the Borderlines: Issues in Caribbean Sovereignty and Development (Ian Randle Press); wrote over 10 book chapters, co-authored eight monographs, and authored 16 full articles in leading academic journals.
His body of work has centred on addressing the Caribbean International Political Economy complex over time with the express aim of highlighting where development transformation is possible, via the structural opportunities on offer at specific conjunctures. He critiques Anglo-American globalisation, conceives of globalisations, locates the Caribbean development problematic within such an imaginary and argues that alternative, sustainable futures are possible. Since 2007 onwards, his focus turned to industrial policy issues and democracy and governance in the Eastern and wider Caribbean. His other published works critically examines the role of Caribbean international financial centres in the global geography of financial services provision. Here he questions the authority and legitimacy of `scientific finance’ as a discourse; while still probing the utility of financialisation as a concept arguing that its formulations ought to take into account the role of non-Western spaces in shaping credit, financial engineering and other forms of warehousing and servicing finance.
In May 2021 Don Marshall was promoted to the highest rank of Professor following a decision made by the University Appointment Committee after it received assessments from external reviewers. He is Professor of International Political Economy and Development Studies.
One external assessor noted: “A criterion for promotion of teaching and research staff at The University of the West Indies is a record of distinguished original work done before or after coming to the University. Dr Marshall has met and surpassed this criterion. Indeed, he is a prolific and meticulous scholar who deserves to be praised for his outstanding achievements. His scholarship and publications are excellent and his overall record is distinguished.”
Prof. Marshall remains and active cricketer and road tennis player. He considers being Nia and Yohance’s Dad as his best accomplishments and rates his sport, love of Caribbean music and community service in a nearby St. Michael community the keys to his work/life balance.
