Who is Norman Girvan?

Professor Norman P. Girvan

1941-2014

Professor Emeritus and Professorial Research Fellow, Institute of International Relations, The University of the West Indies

Caribbean intellectual ▪ Dedicated regionalist ▪ Outstanding scholar

The Library at the Institute of International Relations has been renamed the Norman Girvan Library in honour of the late Professor Norman Girvan, a professional who embodied the scholarship of the region and stood as a respected intellectual, an influential policymaker and an expert diplomat. Upon earning a doctorate from the London School of Economics, Professor Girvan returned to his island home of Jamaica to work as an economist with the Mona Department of Economics. His later professional roles included Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States, member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy, Board Member of the South Centre and the United Nations Secretary General’s Personal Representative on the Guyana-Venezuela Border Controversy.

Career highlights

  • Over eleven books, seven edited volumes and 108 articles and book chapters

  • Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI)

  • Awarded an honorary doctorate in economic sciences Universidad de la Habana

  • The second Secretary-General of the Association of Caribbean States

  • Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies

  • Member of the Board of the South Centre Ø Visiting consultant to the South Centre

  • Founding Member website: 1804caribvoices: Pan-Caribbean voices for Integration and Social Justice

  • Founding member of CRIES (Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales), a Latin American and Caribbean network of 70 NGOs and university research centres

  • A frequent contributor to CounterPunch

  • The Personal representative of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the border issue between Guyana and Venezuela

  • Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations African Institute for Development and Planning in Dakar 

  • Regional Coordinator of the Caribbean Technology Policy Studies Project of the University of the West Indies/University of Guyana Ø

  • Chief Technical Director of the National Planning Agency of the Government of Jamaica 

  • Visiting Fellow: o University of Chile, McGill University, Northwestern University, Sussex University, Yale University

His words and work have flourished extensively throughout the region and the world… and the library was a dear part of him, as he was a dear part of us.

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