Institute for Gender and Development Studies


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Professor of Gender, Social Change and Development

“As someone who has been privileged to work in this field for over thirty years, I am continuously humbled by its complexity and by its rich possibilities for enabling a deeper comprehension of so much of the human condition.”

Biography

Rhoda Reddock is Professor Emerita of Gender, Social Change and Development at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago and former deputy principal.  After completing her undergraduate studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona and St. Augustine campuses, she did her masters at the Institute for Social Studies, The Hague and Doctorat at the University of Amsterdam.  She served as head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies during its formative years. Active in the national and Caribbean Women’s Movement and other social movements, she is the recipient of numerous national, regional and international awards including the Triennial CARICOM Award for Women 2002 and an honorary doctorate from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, 2012.  She was project director of the action-research project and campaign Break the Silence: End Child Sexual Abuse, which received the joint UWI-NGC Most Impacting Research Award in 2014. Prof. Reddock has numerous publications including nine books (2 award- winning), three monographs, four special journal issues and over eighty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Her most recent publication is the co-edited volume, Entangled Inequalities: Decolonial Perspectives on Global Inequalities - Europe and the Caribbean, with Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodriguez, Anthem Press, 2021. Prof. Reddock is currently an executive member of the International Sociological Association (2018-2023) and in 2018-2019, she was DAAD (German Academic Exchange), Visiting Professor at Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. Prof. Reddock is currently an elected expert on the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)  for 2019 -2022 and 2023-2026.

 

Current Projects

“Intersections and Contestations of Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Contemporary Trinidad and Tobago” (provisional title) 
Using the experience of Trinidad and Tobago, and an intersectional frame, this book critically examines the racialized everyday politics, tensions, microaggressions, contestations for power, justice, position, inclusion, recognition and sometimes - actual conflict that characterise racialized societies of the post-colonial world.

 

 

Breaking the Silence on Child Sexual Abuse in Trinidad and Tobago  (provisional title) 
This is a compilation of papers derived from the action-research project of the same name. It explores  the social and gendered frames that enable child sexual abuse It includes a documentation of the innovative gender-sensitive, community-based, action research intervention model which was developed to study this phenomenon while empowering children, parents, and other community members to prevent and respond to CSA.

 

 

 

Areas of Specialization

  • Gender and feminism
  • Women’s social and labour history
  • Gender and social movements
  • Radical Caribbean social thought
  • Environment
  • Development
  • Masculinities
  • Culture
  • Ethnicity and identity
  • Racisn, Ethnicity and Identity
  • Sexualities
  • Radical Caribbean Social and Feminist Thought

 

Appointments

Board Member, Research Committee 05 (Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnicity), International Sociological Association (ISA)

Board Member, Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Member, Executive Committee, International Sociological Association (ISA) 2018-2023

Member, United Nations Committee on CEDAW – 2019-2023 and 2023–2026   Gov.TT  |  Daily Express June 2018

International Advisor, The Global Fund for Women

Honorary Member, Research Network - Queer Studies, Decolonial Feminisms and Cultural Transformation (QDFCT), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany 2018–2021

 

 

Recent media

Select audio-visual 

Power 102 – Black Lives matter can be applied to T&T June 17, 2020 Audio

Interview with Hema Ramkissoon, Support needed for parents facing challenges with child care​. 2019 CNC3 Television

Presentation "Child Sexual Abuse and the Complexities of Gender, Power and Sexuality" H. Lavity Stoutt Community College  March 2017. 

Presentation "Interrogating Caribbean Masculinities: Retrospects and Prospects" Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Texas, Houston, 2015. YouTube

UWI/NGC Award - Most Impacting Research - Prof. Rhoda Reddock and Dr. Sandra Reid. “Breaking the Silence” A Multisectoral Approach to Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse and Incest in Trinidad and Tobago. 2014 YouTube

Esymposium, International Sociological Association (ISA) "In conversation with Professor Rhoda Reddock" Interviewed by Ragi Bashonga on 23 August 2021.
https://esymposium.isaportal.org/resources/resource/in-conversation-with-rhoda-reddock/

 

Select presentations

Conversation - "20th Century Left Feminisms: A Decolonial Reading"  Research Network in Queer Studies, Decolonial Feminisms and Cultural Transformations (QDFCT) Rhoda Reddock and Carole Boyce Davies  Researchnet

Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, 2019  

Keynote Presentation - National Symposium on The Family - “Supporting Families as the Bedrock of Society” 2018  PowerPoint

Feature - Professor Rhoda Reddock: The Struggle Continues “Working for Social Justice and Gender Equity”  Creole Magazine, 2015  Link

"Amy Ashwood Garvey: Global Pan-African Feminist", Lecture Series, 8, August 2021, Essays from the Publication - Pan African Pantheon edited by Adekeye Adebayo, Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg. https://www.youtube.com/@instituteforpan-africantho6697

"Knowledge Production in a Polarized World: Reflections from a Small Place," Keynote address - German Sociological Association, Bielefeld, Germany, Published in the Proceedings of the 41st Conference of the German Sociological Association as “Knowledge Production in a Polarized World: The Global south and the Decolonial Project,” September 2022 

 

Media Commentary

Trinidad Express "No direct link between State and the poor" Interview with Rhoda Reddock by Dr Sheila Rampersad, 17, July 2021
https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/no-direct-link-between-state-and-the-poor/article_915d1448-e767-11eb-9da5-dbd30056ffae.html

Commentary – Trinidad Express – Child sexual abuse — gender, sexuality and public health, Nov 28, 2019

Opinion Trinidad Express – It’s the social sector, stupid! The conundrum of contemporary violence, January 19, 2020 Express

Presentation  “Gender and Achievement in Higher Education,” 100th Anniversary Lecture Series, Girls High School,  St Vincent and the Grenadines. 2010. Professor: Schools are violent places to many boys. Searchlight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Publications

Select publications
Books

Elma Francois, The NWCSA and the Workers Struggle for Change in the Caribbean, New Beacon Books, London 1988.

Women, Labour and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago: A History, London, Zed Books, 1994.

Women Plantation Workers: International Experiences (Co-edited with Shobhita Jain), Berg Publishers, Oxford and New York, 1998 

Caribbean Sociology: Introductory Readings (Co-edited with Christine Barrow), Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston, 2001.

Interrogating Caribbean Masculinities: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses, The UWI Press, Kingston 2004

Sex, Power and Taboo: Gender and HIV in the Caribbean and Beyond, Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston and Miami, 2009 (co-edited with Dorothy Roberts, Dianne Douglas and Sandra Reid)

Decolonial Perspectives on Entangled Inequalities: Europe and the Caribbean, London, Anthem Press, 2021 (Co-edited with Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez)

 

Refereed Book Chapters

"“Split me in Two”:  Gender, Ethnicity and Race-Mixing in the Trinidad and Tobago Nation” in Global Mixed Race, edited by Rebecca Chiyoko King-O’Riain, Stephen Small, Minelle Mahtani, Miri Song, Paul Spickard, New York, NYU Press, 2014, pp. 44-67

“Up Against a Wall: Muslim Women’s Struggle to Reclaim Masjid Space in Trinidad and Tobago”, in Aisha Khan (ed.) Islam and the Americas, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2015, pp. 217-248.

“Conceptualizing Sex/Gender Diversity: Considerations for the Caribbean” in Marjan De Bruin and R. Anthony Lewis (eds.) Gender Variances and Sexual Diversity in the Caribbean, Kingston, The UWI Press, March 2020.

“Indo-Caribbean Masculinities and Indo-Caribbean Feminisms: Where are we Now?” in Gabrielle Jamela Hosein and Lisa Outar (eds.) Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 263-282.Select reports

“Amy Ashwood Garvey: Global Pan-Africanist Feminist,” in Adekeye Adebajo (ed.) The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets and Philosophers, Johannesburg, Jacana Press and Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg, 2020, pp. 131-143.

 “Welcome to Paradise, Neoliberalism, Violence and the Social and Gender Crisis in the Caribbean,” In Encarnacion Gutierrez-Rodriguez and Rhoda Reddock (eds.) Decolonial Perspectives on Entangled Inequalities: Europe and the Caribbean, London, Anthem Press, 2021, pp. 55-76

 “Interdisciplinary Feminist Research, Environment, and Community: The Nariva Swamp Case Study”, in Kamala Kempadoo and Halimah DeShong (eds.) Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender and Sexuality, Kingston, Ian Randle Publishers, 2021 (with Grace Sirju-Charran)

 “Crab Antics: Challenging the Reputation- Respectability Matrix in Caribbean Anthropology’ in David Sutton and Deborah A. Thomas (eds.) Changing Continuities and the Scholar-activist Anthropology of Constance R. Sutton, Kingston,  Ian Randle Publishers, 2022.

 

Journals 

“Radical Caribbean Social Thought: Race, Class Identity and the Postcolonial Nation” Current Sociology, Vol. 62 No. 4, July 2014, pp. 493-511  

70th Anniversary of the Journal Current Sociology https://journals.sagepub.com/page/csi/collections/70th-anniversary)

“Looking for ah Indian Man”: Popular culture and the Dilemmas of Indo-Trinidadian Masculinity”, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 4, December 2014, p. 46-63.

“Child Sexual Abuse and the Complexities of Gender, Power, and Sexuality” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 29, April, 2020, DOI 10.1177/0886260520909193, pp. 1 –33 (with Sandra Reid and Tisha Nickenig).

“Competing Victimhoods: a framework for the analysis of post-colonial multi-ethnic societies” Social Identities, Volume 29, No. 6, April 2019, pp. 809-827.

“Action research improves services for child sexual abuse in one Caribbean nation: An example of good practice" Child Abuse and Neglect, February 2019 Issue 88m pp. 225-234. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.11.018. Epub 2018 Dec 8 (with Sandra Reid and Tisha Nickenig)\

“Reivindicando Soberania em Regimes de Cativeiro: Mulheres, Genero E Sistemas Escravistas Caribenhos” in Adriano Pedroso, Amanda Caneiro and André Mesquita (eds.) Histốrias Afro-Atlἆnticas Vol. 2 Antologia, Sao Paulo, Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2018

“South Asian Plantation Histories and their Enduring Legacies: Indian and Atlantic Ocean Connections” in Development and Change, Volume 48, Issue 1, January 2017, pp. 189–200.

“CEDAW and Violence Against Women” , Foreword to Special issue of Violence Against Women: Vol. 26, No.6, June 1922, pp. 1723 – 1727.

 

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