News Releases

New date for UWI lecture with Vincentian PM Ralph Gonsalves

For Release Upon Receipt - June 5, 2014

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – A new date has been announced for the Distinguished Open Lecture by Dr. The Hon Ralph E. Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The lecture, titled “Free Movement of People, Shanique Myrie and Our Caribbean Civilisation” will now take place on June 17, 2014 from 5.30pm at Lecture Theatre E of The UWI’s new Teaching and Learning Complex on Circular Road, St. Augustine.

His address follows the second in a lecture series at The UWI St. Augustine focusing on CARICOM: exploring its usefulness to the region and its future, following its 40th anniversary celebrations under a year ago. On April 7, The Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas spoke on his views on the role of The Bahamas in CARICOM. The series began in October 2013 with CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque with a lecture titled “Where is CARICOM going?”  

The lecture is free, and open to the public. All are invited.

End   

About Dr. The Hon. Ralph Gonsalves

Ralph Everad Gonsalves was born on August 08, 1946 in a rural village in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  He is married to Eloise Gonsalves nee Harris and has five children. Dr. Gonsalves was educated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the Colonarie Roman Catholic School and at the St. Vincent Boys’ Grammar School.  He later completed a Bachelors Degree in Economics at The UWI Mona. In 1971 he obtained a Masters in Government from the The UWI. In 1974 and 1981 he obtained a Ph. D in Government and a Degree of Utter Barrister at University of Manchester, England and Gray’s Inn, London, respectively. Dr. Gonsalves became the Deputy Political Leader of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) in 1994.  As political leader of the ULP, he won the St. Vincent and the Grenadines General Elections held on March 28, 2001. He has remained Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines since then, winning the elections again in December 2005. Dr. Gonsalves has researched, written and published extensively on a range of matters touching upon the Caribbean, African, trade unionism, comparative political economy, and developmental issues generally.  Among his two latest publications are:  History and the Future:  A Caribbean Perspective (1994), The Politics of Our Caribbean Civilisation – Essays and Speeches (2001), The Making of the Comrade: The Political Journey of Ralph Gonsalves (2010), and Diary of a Prime Minister: Ten Days Among Benedictine Monks (2010).   

About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation. Website: www.uwi.edu 

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

Contact