The
project involves All three campuses of the University
of the West Indies and was initiated by Professor Edna
Bay, Institute of Women’s Studies, Emory University
and Professor Patricia Mohammed of the Centre for gender
and Development Studies, St. Augustine Campus.
The
major components of each of the two components are
briefly summarized: -
1.
Cultural Crossings: A Gender Imagebase
This
component attempts to pool collected image data from
an extensive range of sources that include libraries,
archives, galleries, and personal site visits to different
territories, along with relevant bibliographies and
papers. The rationale for the generation of this database
is part of the wider intellectual development that
investigates the increasingly ‘ visual’ character
of modern society.
2.
Faculty/ Student Exchange
The
exchange programme between The CGDS and The Institute
of Women’s Studies, Emory University, is designed
to build on complementary strengths to broaden the
training opportunities for graduate students and to
enhance scholarly contacts between faculty/staff for
future collaborative efforts. It will facilitate networking
not only at the level of practicing scholars, but just
as crucially, at the level of scholars-in-training.
Ms. Claudette Anderson— UWI/EMORY Exchange Student
Discourse
on the Caribbean
academic diaspora
focuses on “brain-drain” and
its negative
repercussions,
with correspondingly
few practical
solutions about
how to effectively
counter the problem.
The UWI/Emory
Graduate Exchange
Programme hosted
by Women’s
Studies (Emory)
and the Centre
for Gender and
Development Studies – CGDS
(UWI) is an exemplary
exchange programme
which allows
Caribbean students
at Emory the
rare opportunity
to participate
in valuable academic
exchange and
make meaningful
contributions
to academic development
in the region.
The
work of the CGDS, St. Augustine Unit, is as diverse
as the interests of its students and lecturers. This
can be seen in the Centre’s role in the development
of a National Gender Policy for Trinidad and Tobago,
and the creation of a gender image database, in addition
to various research projects including “Women,
Gender and Water” and “The making of Feminisms
in the Caribbean”. Further, proof of the Centre’s
active support of Caribbean academics “dislocated” in
North American universities is seen in the book launch
hosted by the CGDS which featured Diasporic (Dis)locations:
Indo-Caribbean Women Writers Negotiate the 'Kala Pani'
by Brinda Mehta (Mills College, California); Ramabai
Espinet’s (York University and Seneca College,
Canada), The Swinging Bridge: and Kamala Kempadoo’s
(York University, Canada), Sexing the Caribbean: Gender,
Race and Sexual Labor.
As
a visiting Scholar at the CGDS, I was able to benefit
from the Centre’s multiple resources. I am a
Jamaican pursuing graduate work in Caribbean cultural
and ethno-medical systems, and this program afforded
me the invaluable opportunity to experience Caribbean
culture as the proverbial “insider-outsider”.
Not only did it provide me with a base for the comparative
analysis of Trinidad and Tobago’s cultural and
healing traditions, but equally, allowed for the exchange
of resources between the two universities. In particular,
Emory’s wealth of secondary material proved useful
for students who needed access to databases and bibliographical
material otherwise unavailable. Similarly, UWI was
helpful in providing primary resources in the way of
informants and local events. Brainstorming sessions,
which included deliberations on potential informants
and fieldwork sites, coupled with the downloading of
articles and other bibliographic information was an
important part of my experience.
Exchange
Programmes usually allow students to experience diversity
in curriculum; and the UWI/Emory Exchange Programme
was no different. Specifically, the Men and Masculinities
course, taught by the substantive Head of the Centre,
Professor Rhoda Reddock, reinforced the importance
of the masculinity discourse in the post-colonial Caribbean
and was pivotal in my reconceptualization of Caribbean
ethnomedicine as a site for alternative forms of masculinities
and fathering. I look forward to continuing collaboration
with Professor Reddock in this regard. I also excitedly
anticipate continuing conversations with the diverse
cadre of graduate students at the CGDS, whose work
include gender analysis of the police force, the role
of women in business turnaround, community development
in the South, post colonial literary studies and comparative
studies of gender curricula.
Students
affiliated with the CGDS are privileged to benefit
from the weekly Lunch Time Seminar which is an important
tool for scholars-in-training. The Seminar allows students
to familiarize themselves with the preparation and
presentation of conference/seminar papers, and exposes
them to a wide range of academic works, both local
and international. The Seminar also allows for participation
in critical analysis of scholarly work. During my stay,
I presented a seminar paper and found it extremely
useful to engage with scholars in the Caribbean about
my own work. Dr. Patricia Mohammed, Acting Head of
the CGDS was very generous in offering critical insights;
and her argument for the Caribbean political arena
as a gendered healing space has been instrumental in
shaping the direction of my dissertation. I am pleased
to have benefited from her expertise in Feminist Theory,
Gender Relations in Caribbean Society and Caribbean
Iconography and Identity.
I
leave T & T having enjoyed Carnival, Baron, Singing
Sandra and Sparrow on home ground; and having traveled
(among other places) to South, Maracas Bay, Central
as well as Charlotteville, Crown Point – Tobago.
I visited Spiritual Baptist mourning grounds, observed
Yoruba Feasts and sang at a Kaballah banquet. In spite
of corruption charges being leveled at former Prime
Minister Basdeo Panday and with the hope of never becoming “Trini-to-di-bone” (because “Bake ‘n’ Shark” is
not “Fish and Festival”), this Jamaican-studying-abroad-hoping-to-go-home-soon,
left Sango country with a sincere appreciation of the
cultural diversity of the Caribbean as well as the
wholesome nature of the academic enterprise; and for
that I thank the UWI/Emory Graduate Exchange Programme.
Shani S. Settles— UWI/EMORY Exchange Student
Through
the Emory-UWI Fulbright Gender Studies Exchange Program,
I have had the unparalleled opportunity to pursue and
engage in intellectual conversations forefronting Caribbean
Perspectives on Feminisms, Black Nationalisms, and
African-Derived Religions. While the Centre for Creative
and Festival Arts and the Department of Liberal Arts
have been integral resources in my exchange, the Centre
for Gender and Development Studies has been my home.
The faculty and staff at the Centre have been generous
with their time and in sharing their resources with
me; the graduate students of the Centre have been incredible
intellectual partners and support my intellectual project.
I am privileged and honored to say that I can name
advisors, mentors, and friends among them.
Moreover,
the Centre, as the base of/for scholarly reflection
and dissertation development, has provided invaluable
and constructive occasions/prospects through courses
- Men and Masculinities, Sex, Gender, and Society,
Graduate Seminar, the Ethnography Seminar, interdisciplinary
lunchtime seminars, the publishing of working papers,
and ongoing research including the Women and Water
Project and the Image and Iconography database.
It
is my hope that the knowledge gained and experiences
with the Centre and the University of the West Indies,
St. Augustine may be applied and shared with scholars
and students at Emory, and that I may return once again
to the Centre in the near future to share the results
of my studies and fieldwork. Without this exchange
I would not have been exposed to frameworks of/for
understanding that have both invigorated, challenged,
and strengthened my theoretical approach and methodologies
to the study of African American Women in African-Derived
Religions.
The
UWI-Emory-Fulbright Exchange, and the Centre for Gender
and Development Studies must be applauded as they have
assisted me in achieving intellectual and personal
goals, an accomplishment that will be long felt, positively
acknowledged, and gratefully remembered.
Sample
image for the Gender ImageBase
