A special three-day retirement conference entitled “From Apocalypse to Awakenings” was held by the Department of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Education, from October 4-6, in honour of Literature Lecturer, Professor Gordon Rohlehr who retired after 40 years of dedicated service to The University of the West Indies.

The conference included presentation of papers on Professor Rohlehr’s work on calypso, the oral tradition and literature; a documentary screening on his life and work; an award ceremony; a calypso night; and an evening of jazz put on by the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts.

At the awards ceremony on October 4, Professor Barbara Lalla in her citation alluded to Professor Rohlehr’s “encyclopedic, state-of-the-art knowledge, his passionate, regional consciousness and his sense of humour”. She said that “through every medium he has shared unreservedly his stunning breath, breathtaking depth and phenomenal supersensitivity of mind.”

During the ceremony, Professor Rohlehr was presented with several tokens of appreciation: paintings by artists Leroi Clarke and Glen Roopchand which was presented by Dr. Paula Morgan as well as a plaque from the Belmont’s Boys Secondary School. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Mr. Earl Nesbitt brought greetings on behalf of his Minister.

In welcoming guests at the ceremony, interim Campus Principal, Professor Bridget Brereton, identified Rohlehr as a true social and cultural historian whose many published essays documented the social and intellectual evolution of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean over the last 50 or 60 years.

Professor Brereton also said that as a mentor and model to many people, he taught generations of students at all levels and is an inspiring and much loved teacher. In addition, she said, “he is a public intellectual, fully engaged in intellectual and cultural life outside the university, a mentor to so many young writers, a participant in the wider cultural and literary, regional world.”

Some of Professor Rohlehr’s published works include Pathfinder: Black Awakening in the Arrivals of Edward Kamau Brathwaite; Calypso and Society in Pre-Independence Trinidad; My Strangled City and other Essays; and The Shape of That Hurt and other Essays.