Click and drag image to right to see full photo
“I developed a natural affiliation to UWI as a graduate and, in particular, to the Department of History and Archaeology where I continue to receive tremendous encouragement for my work. Having been exposed to the excellent research and teaching of my former lecturers, some of whom are now my colleagues, stimulated my desire to contribute to the rich tradition of scholarship in the Department. In turn, I now try to foster an enquiring and analytical mind in my students, which they can apply to any area of life. I would like to continue to contribute to the body of research into the banking and business history of Jamaica and the West Indies and to foster a vibrant academic programme in the field of Business History at The University of the West Indies.”

Dr. Kathleen Monteith

SENIOR LECTURER
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION
MONA CAMPUS, JAMAICA
Tel: (876) 927-7192 ext 3212 • Email: Kathleen.Monteith@uwimona.edu.jm

PROFILE

Kathleen Monteith received a BA with Honours in History and an MPhil in History from UWI, Mona in 1986 and 1992 respectively. She received a PhD from the Centre for International Business History, University of Reading, England in 1997 and was appointed Lecturer in History in 1998 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in August 2007. In terms of contribution to curriculum development, Dr. Monteith designed and teaches courses in banking and business history at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. These include Multinational and International Banking. Since the 19th Century, Banking in the Commonwealth Caribbean, 1837-1990, Business and Banking in Jamaica, 1837–1990, and Business History: Scope, Methodology and Sources. She is the recipient of several awards, notably, the prestigious Elsa Goveia Memorial Scholarship (1987–1989) towards the MPhil degree in History from UWI, a Commonwealth Scholarship towards the PhD in History (1992–1995); a UWI Mona Academic Research Fellowship Award (2001–2003). In 2005, she received the UWI Mona Principal’s Award for the Best Publication in the Faculty of Humanities and Education for her article, “Commercial Bank Regulation in the British West Indies, 1837-1962”. Her most recent publication Depression to Decolonization: Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in the West Indies, 1926 to 1962 (UWI Press, 2008) is the first major academic study of a commecial bank’s operations in the West Indies. Based on extensive use of archival material from the Barclays Bank Archives, the British National Archives, The University of the West Indies Libraries at Mona, Cave Hill and St. Augustine, and the National Library of Jamaica, this book is a new and significant contribution to West Indian historiography in the under-explored areas of the business and financial history of the region.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Kathleen Monteith explores the areas of West Indian banking and business history. She is currently researching topics related to commercial and agricultural business activity in the West Indies in the mid 19th to early 20th century period, and has plans to conduct further research into the history of the banking sector in the post independence period, and into the history of plantation coffee in Jamaica in the late 18th to early 19th century.