Event

The Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic and presents an online webinar on the topic Anchoring Sustainable Development through Spirituality, Religion and Morality in Caribbean SIDS – Part II. This session will be hosted via the Zoom platform on Friday, May 26, 2023 at 10 a.m.

Morality is an ultimate thrust in counteracting the ill-effects of sustainable development.  Understanding and reinforcing the roles of spirituality and religion in relation as seeds for variable morality outcomes are possible messages that can be heeded albeit with variable intensities. Spirituality and religiosity are critical virtues that shape everyday life and living through the thoughts and deeds of humankind.  Such thoughts and deeds impact the capacity of individuals and specific sets of individuals to follow paths that can either be classified as right or wrong on hand, and as either legal or illegal on yet another hand.  From sociological, economic, administrative, political, and environmental lenses, manifestations of right versus wrong, legal versus illegal, mix and combine with at least one of the five lenses in a symbiotic manner to determine favourable or unfavourable development outcomes in a variety of social settings.  Not surprisingly, this forum is predicated upon spirituality and/or religiosity as roots of sustainable development channels and outcomes in Caribbean SIDS.  While the vast majority of panellists are based in Trinidad and Tobago, their multi-religious perspective are important in reflecting upon discourses that rarely find spaces in academic enterprises that underlie and inform development processes deemed relevant in the Caribbean Region.

Though an integral part of the scholarly tradition in tertiary education training and research, there is a paucity of thought associated with contemporary ideology, belief systems, practice, and experience borne out of a sober engagement with spiritual and religious insights.  This forum facilitates such an engagement, a rare phenomenon in the scholarly discourse emanating from the UWI.  Apart from generating new knowledge that is to be disseminated and shared widely, the forum will also provide fertile insights and a critical interrogation of ideas essential in promoting and embarking on novel and worthwhile research linking spirituality, religiosity, and sustainable development within Caribbean SIDS.

Speakers Include:

- Rev. Dr. Kenneth Niles

- Mr. Bobby Andrews

- Chief Olakela Massetungi

- Dr. Michael Barnett

- Dr. K. B. Dennis Meade

- Rev. Dr. Glenroy Lalor