News Releases

Caribbean Heritage in all its complex glory

For Release Upon Receipt - January 25, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – Caribbean Heritage, a volume of essays edited by Dr. Basil Reid, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology in the Department of History at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, was launched on Monday 28th January, 2013 at the Main Salon of the Office of the Campus Principal at UWI St. Augustine.

In its 26 chapters, written by 32 contributors, Caribbean Heritage takes a closer look at the rich plurality that represents the Caribbean experience, including its symbolism, popular culture, literature, linguistics, pedagogy, philanthropy, natural history, land tenure, townscapes, archaeology and museology. While the volume focuses mainly on Trinidad and Tobago’s heritage, it also includes chapters relating specifically to Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Dominica, the Cayman Islands and the wider Caribbean. This book is a comprehensive compilation that will satiate the huge interest in Caribbean culture and history generated by Trinidad and Tobago’s and Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of independence last year.

According to Dr. Reid, “Given its multidisciplinary approach, Caribbean Heritage will have considerable appeal to a wide range of scholars such as folklorists, environmentalists, heritage professionals, linguists, librarians, cultural studies experts, historians, archaeologists, museologists, and students involved in heritage studies in the region and beyond.”

Dr. Reid has authored several books, edited volumes and published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals on the indigenous people and cultures of the Caribbean. His concentration is in the sphere of the pre-Columbian archaeology of the Caribbean, geoinformatics, landscape archaeology, and the historical geography and forensics of the Caribbean as well as Trinidad’s railways. He is co-editing The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology; and co-authoring, with Gelien Matthews, Caribbean History in Maps and Diagrams (5000 B.C. – A.D. 1917). He also edits the Department of History’s online journal, History in Action, and serves on the editorial boards of Historic Environment, the Archaeological Society of Jamaica, and the International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology.

He has been appointed to the Amerindian Project Committee and the Archaeological Sub-Committee of the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago. He is the senior representative for the Caribbean and Latin America at the World Archaeological Congress. His archaeological fieldwork experience spans the circum-Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

For further information, please contact Shelley-Ann Patrick-Harper at 662 2002 ext. 82635 or via email at Shelley-Ann.Patrick-Harper@sta.uwi.edu

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About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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