Our Team
Professor Jessica Byron, Director
Professor Byron joined the UWI Institute of International Relations as its Director on August 1, 2016. Professor Byron holds a B.A in French and Spanish from The University of The West Indies, Cavehill and a Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations, The University of The West Indies, St. Augustine. She has a PhD in International Relations from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, University of Geneva. She serves on a number of editorial advisory committees including the Small States and Territories Journal and the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy. Previously she was Professorial Fellow at SALISES Mona (2015 - 2016) and Head of the Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica (2010 – 2013). She was also the UWI Coordinator of a tripartite B.Sc./M.Sc. programme in Politics and International Cooperation involving the UWI, Universite Antilles-Guyane and the University of Bordeaux IV. She has served as Visiting Lecturer in the graduate programme on International and Comparative Politics at the Universite Antilles-Guyane and is a member of the CLACSO Working Group on Crisis, Response and Alternatives in the Caribbean. Her research interests include the Caribbean and Latin American regionalism and small states/societies in the global political economy. She was the Caribbean convenor on the Executive Committee of a research and advocacy programme “Building Global Democracy” (www.bgd.org) based at the University of Warwick 2008 - 2012. Academic affiliations include the International Studies Association, the Latin American Studies Association and the Caribbean Studies Association.
Dr. Nand C. Bardouille, Manager
Dr. Nand C. Bardouille heads the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC), coordinating teaching, research and analyses on and in support of diplomacy in the sustainable development of Caribbean Small Island Developing States. Dr. Bardouille leads the DAOC, the Caribbean's premier professional development-oriented diplomatic studies training centre, overseeing the development and implementation of its work programme. It covers training and capacity development in diplomatic and international studies, as well as research, dialogue and advocacy work on the nexus between the Caribbean and diplomacy. He is also a concurrent faculty member in the Institute of International Relations at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), serving as Lecturer in Methodology and Theory of International Relations.
Prior to joining The UWI, Dr. Bardouille briefly worked in the management consulting space, specializing in the areas of international development and higher education. Before that, he was a Visiting Professor–International Relations of Small Island States at the University of Prince Edward Island's Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) Program.
Previously, Dr. Bardouille served as a senior trade official for over twelve years with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (now the Office of Trade Negotiations of the CARICOM Secretariat) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat (now the OECS Commission). He contributed to the formulation and delivery of programmes/projects to enhance regional development processes of Caribbean small states, coordinating strategic engagement/partnerships among intergovernmental organizations in support of and advising governments on foreign/trade, regional integration and development cooperation policymaking. Dr. Bardouille has also held social sciences teaching appointments at higher education institutions, and briefly worked with the United Nations.
Dr. Bardouille's teaching and research focus is on International Relations and Comparative Politics, with a regional focus on the Caribbean. He specializes in and has published on the diplomacy, foreign policy and international economic relations of small states.
Dr. Bardouille is a Canadian trained political economist, who holds postgraduate degrees in Political Science, Public Administration and International Development Studies, as well as an undergraduate degree in Political Science.