Two UWI Professors to receive National Honours

Two University of the West Indies Professors are to be awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander at the National Honours and Awards Ceremony on Heroes Day. They are University Director of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies’ Regional Coordinating Unit, Professor Verene Shepherd, and Professor of Literary and Cultural S

Two University of the West Indies Professors are to be awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander at the National Honours and Awards Ceremony on Heroes Day. They are University Director of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies’ Regional Coordinating Unit, Professor Verene Shepherd, and Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies in the Department of Literatures in English, Professor Carolyn Cooper.
 
Professor Shepherd has been awarded the CD for “outstanding service to Education in particular History and Gender Studies’, while Professor Cooper is being awarded for “outstanding contribution to Education”. 
 
Professor Shepherd’s reaction was one of total surprise. “It really is an honour. I must say it was a surprise. Maybe everybody says that, but it really was a surprise to me” She noted that a highlight of her career is her radio programme ‘Talking History’ which has given her a wider space than the classroom to teach and discuss a wide range of issues. She says she continues to be concerned about gender relations in the region, in particular lack of access to education for girls.  
 
Reacting to the award, Professor Cooper noted: I am happy. I felt yes … it’s nice to be awarded by your own country.” Professor Cooper noted that a highlight to her work to date the contribution made to the intellectual development of students; “To feel my contributions have helped somebody see the world in a different way”.
 
Verene A. Shepherd, Professor of Social History at the UWI, is the second woman to hold a professorship in the Mona History Department, the first being the late Guyanese historian Elsa Goveia. She has contributed to the advancement of Women’s History in the History Department, helping to develop the course, “Women and Gender in the History of the English-speaking Caribbean” which she has taught since 1993. She compiled Women in Caribbean History (I999) on behalf of the Mona History Department’s Social History Project, which she directed from 1993-1996; and, while a Board member of the CGDS, initiated the idea of the Lucille Mathurin Mair Lecture Series. She has authored two books focused on the Indian Diaspora in the Caribbean and has edited/co-edited seven other books including Working Slavery, Pricing Freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean, Africa and the African Diaspora (2002) and Slavery without Sugar: Diversity in Caribbean Economy and Society Since the 17th Century (2002).
 
Carolyn Cooper is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the UWI’s Mona Campus where she teaches Caribbean, African and African-American Literature. She also co-ordinates the University's embryonic Reggae Studies Unit, an academic project she initiated. Professor Cooper is the author of Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the 'Vulgar' Body of Jamaican Popular Culture (1993) and Border Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large (forthcoming, 2004). Most recently,she is also editor of Global reggae – a collection of essays on the global impact of reggae.
 
 This year’s National Honours and Awards are awarded on the 51st Anniversary of Independence by His Excellency The Governor-General, the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, acting in accordance with the Regulations made under Section 7 of the National Honours and Awards Act, and on the advice of the Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller.