Dr. Heather Cateau
Senior Lecturer
Heather Cateau is a senior lecturer in Caribbean History at the University of the West Indies’ St. Augustine Campus. She has held the positions of Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, Head of the History Department and University Dean. Her research focus has led to a revisionary approach to plantation and enslavement systems in the Caribbean. She is a past President of the Association of Caribbean Historians. Her publications include: History Matters: Reassembling the Fragments of a Contested Past; Turning Tides Caribbean Intersections in the Americas and Beyond; Beyond Tradition, Reinterpreting the Caribbean Historical Experience; The Caribbean in the Atlantic World and Capitalism and Slavery Fifty Years Later. She has held Visiting Fellowships at the University of Iowa, University of Cambridge and the University of St Andrews. She has also been part of several international research and technical teams.
Qualification
- PhD History, St Augustine Campus
- BA History, St Augustine Campus
Research Interests
- Plantation Management in the Caribbean
- Enslavement in the Caribbean
- The White Working and Middle Classes in the Caribbean
- Hidden Profits From Enslavement
- Scotland and the Caribbean- Historical Connections
Honours and Awards
- Senior Research Fellow, University of St Andrews, January 2022-July 2024
- CDA Visiting Fellowship in Atlantic Studies, University of Iowa – 2004.
- Smuts Visiting Fellowship in Commonwealth Studies, Cambridge University - 1999/2000.
- Awardee, University of London (Goldsmith's College), CICHE Scheme - 1992.
- Post Graduate Scholarship, Elsa Goveia Scholarship, UWI – 1990-1992.
Research Projects
- Academic Advisor – ‘Shared Island Stories between Scotland and the Caribbean: Past, Present, Future’, University of St Andrews, 2022-2027.
- Consulting Editor and Member of Advisory Board, CO Caribbean (Caribbean Digitization Project 2019-2021).
- Team Member, EULAC Museums and Community: Concepts, Experiences and Sustainability in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean 2015-2018- Lead Trinidad and Tobago.
- Voices of the Past, Oral History Project. An oral and transcribed database of 150 interviews with persons 70 years old and over. Compiled for the study of developments in Trinidad and Tobago between 1880 and 1920, 2017. Principal Investigator.
Graduate Students
- PhD - Melanie Pouchet, “The Catalonian Capuchin Missions in Spanish Trinidad 1687-1735: An Alternative Frontier Model” ( High Commendation Awarded 2024).
- PhD -Joanne Gonzales, “The Entrepreneurship of the Portuguese in British Guiana, 1840- 1920” (Awarded 2014).
- PhD - Lovell Francis, “Transformation in the Trinidadian Sugar Industry, 1970-2005” (Awarded 2012).
- PhD - Terencia Joseph, “Indian Indentureship in St. Lucia” (Awarded 2008).
- MPhil - Bertha Joseph, “A Socio-Cultural History of the Afro-St Lucian Labouring Population, 1838-1907” (Awarded 2024).
- MPhil - Lynette Sampson, “Rethinking the 1970s” (Awarded 2022). Co-Supervised
- MPhil - Louise Mathurin, “Economic Diversification in St. Lucia in the Nineteenth Century” (Awarded 2012).
- MPhil - Shelia Morris, “St. Kitts another Plantation” (Awarded 2005).
Publications and Presentations
Dr. Heather Cateau- Publications.pdf
