A View of The Caribbean Studies Association @ 45: Charting New Paths (Part 1)

Over 1,000 scholars, policy makers and activists assembled virtually this week (May 31-June 4, 2021 ) to brain storm and share visions about the future of Caribbean Studies, the role of the Caribbean Diaspora and  prospects of Caribbean Development. The theme of the Conference,  Identity Politics, Industry, Ecology and the Intelligent Economy in Caribbean Societies illustrates the expansive scope of the discourse that yielded recommendations that were innovative, futuristic  and realistic. The Conference originally  scheduled  to be held in Guyana this time last year was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even after an intervening year, the persistence of COVID-19 meant  that for the first time in 45 years,  the gears had to be shifted to a totally online event. Both the CSA Conference Committee led by Professor Travis Jules, President and Dr. Kristina Hinds Conference Chair and the Local Organizing Committee led by Dr. Melissa Ifill, UG's  Deputy Vice Chancellor, International Engagement deserve the highest commendations for pulling off a highly successful event. 
 
CSA Presidents Present 
 
The auspicious opening ceremony  that was spiced with a panorama of Guyana's  culture  signaled the high quality of the Conference.  So did the Special Plenaries spread over the five  days of the Conference. In his provocative address  entitled "The Caribbean in Turbulent Times"  at the Opening Ceremony, Professor  Travis Jules, a Guyanese- American  from Loyola University, Chicago and President of CSA pointed to: 

• The "vulnerability paradox" as a catalytic challenge of small Caribbean states facing climate change, brain drain, high debt burdens, persistent poverty and underdevelopment.
• The failure to give  credit to CARICOM as a  group of nations still maturing and  paddling their way to a fully realized statehood.
• Perpetuating a damaged self-esteem of ourselves by bowing to the Western world’s ideas,  even in the intellectual discourse of what is ‘good’ and ‘right’. 

 
He charged the Conference to confront the future with a series of  the questions, most of which were dealt with in numerous concurrent sessions that followed. They  include:

• Is Guyana’s human resource development ready to take advantage of the                         opportunities that the new oil marketplace will provide.? 
• Can it provide a self-reliant path? 
•  Is it ready and capable to  become the leader within CARICOM? 
• Will  the persistent racial cleavages impede its potential to 'rise from the development ashes like a phoenix'? 
• What emphasis will it place on enhancing the role and impact of the national       university as the driver of innovative research and creative thinking?    

 
A  special plenary at the end of Day 1 with  five past CSA Presidents*  engaged the audience on "reflecting on the future of the CSA through the lenses of the past".  The takeaways  included: 

• Recognizing  that the Caribbean is part of a World system with a new cold war and a new World order looming, in which China challenges USA for the leadership. 
• Taking account of the fact that the  global South  and the Asian century are emerging. 
• Resetting  Caribbean foreign policy and  pivoting  to avoid geo-political marginalization. 
• Stemming  the tide of social disaffection, human poverty and crime. 
• Paying attention to the expansion and diversification of the Association's membership, including reaching out to NGOs. 
• Professionalizing the organization with the application of a business model to promote its sustainability. 
• Promoting  multi country research, creating  international networks and collaborating  with transnational scholars.  
• Placing greater emphasis on internationalizing Caribbean studies, with special  reference to its cultural and historical components.  

 
In Tribute to Professor Simon Jones Hendrickson and the Late Professor Wendell Bell 
 
This special Presidential Plenary was dedicated to Professor Simon Jones Hendrickson, founding member and CSA  President 1983-84 who edited a volume Caribbean Vision (Eastern Caribbean Institute 1991) with 10 Presidential lectures in the 1980s and the late Professor Wendell Bell, Yale University who introduced the Presidential lectures during his tenure. "This book is one of the features  of the  CSA  historiography and should  be so recorded in its annals".    
 
University of Guyana’s Vice Chancellor, Women and Leadership
  
In her keynote address to the Special  Plenary on Day 2, Professor  Paloma Mohamed Martin, UG’s Vice Chancellor offered a tour de force titled "Cougars Will Rise Re-collecting Resilience in the Caribbean". She connected the dots between a readily changing ecosystem, the demands on intellectual products and the importance of intellectual leadership in charting policies to achieve sustainable development. The important parallels that the audience is left to draw are rooted in the characteristics of the cougar: agility, mastery  of communication and extensive geographic range. In addition, the reproductive characteristic of the cougar is relevant  in the sense of the evolution of independent thought and the replenishment of intellectual leadership. In this regard,  the UG Strategic Blueprint 2040, advances the ambitious outcome of one graduate per household and generating  student and citizen successes  as a critical contribution of  academia to the community, the national, regional and international systems.  
 
A Plenary on Women and Leadership on Day 3, while this blog was being written had on display two women who have broken the glass ceiling: Dr. Carla Barnett, a Belizean,  recently appointed as the first female Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in its 48 year history  and before her,  Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin, the first female Vice Chancellor in   University of Guyana’s 58 years and the first female VC in the English Speaking Caribbean.  The Panel  also included USA Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Lynch,  Lady  Ananda Trotman Joseph, woman  activist and Chairperson of the Grenada National Coalition on the Rights of the Child, and Ms. Sonia Noel, Guyanese International Fashion Designer who holds an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Global Oved Dei Seminary and University (GODSU) in the USA. The main takeaways from this Panel included:

• Women  emerging to leadership roles especially in politics,  are challenged by social conditions that place them at a disadvantage.
• The cultural environment and socialization tend to marginalize women in their quests for leadership roles.
• The requirement of  higher level efforts in implementing the Sustainable  Development Goals (SDG) #5 The pursuit  for  gender equity and #16 The promotion of  peaceful, inclusive societies for sustainable development, access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.  
• Women need to demand  the tools to support their work. 
• Transformational leadership requires growing  a collective of women sensitized to promote  gender equality and providing  mentorship.  
• Vesting women with the zeal for  acting to sustain an enabling environment requiring  mentorship , training,  modeling , sharing  positive attitudes  toward empowerment of women 
• Emulating "secrets to success" including  finding purpose, working hard, challenging  yourself,  taking  smart risks,  'being yourself', finding work-life balance, ensuring self-care and rejuvenation, 'reliance on intuition' 

 
Conclusion
 
The focus on the  Plenary sessions helped to set the tone of the CSA @45  Conference. They provided   the context for following up on the questions raised,  challenges to overcome,  proposals  for organizational restructuring and the meaningful contribution  of the Association to Caribbean Visions. These elements were amplified in the 180 sessions organized to run  concurrently. Among the stand outs  for  follow up are those  clusters of panels on the Environment and Resilience, Gender Equity and Digitization.   
 
Eddie Greene
 
*Notes on Participants in Presidential Panel 
 
Compton Bourne  President  (1985-86), Former President CDB, (CSA Venezuela 1986)
Carole Boyce Davies, President (2015-16), Professor Africana Studies, Cornell University,
(CSA Haiti 2016)  
Jacqui Braveboy-Wagner, President (1992-93), Professor, (CSA Jamaica 1993), Professor,
Political Science-International Relations, City University of New York
Edward Greene, President ( 1989-90), Chancellor, UG  (CSA Barbados 1989)
​Jorge Heine, President (1990-91), Professor, Pardee School Global Studies, Boston Univ. (Cuba,1991)