News Releases

President Richards to address Sir Arthur Lewis Conference at UWI

For Release Upon Receipt - September 17, 2008

St. Augustine


His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, will next weekend deliver the feature address at a special conference hosted by The University of the West Indies (UWI) in honour of Sir Arthur Lewis.

The UWI Faculty of Social Sciences, together with the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), will host the Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Conference ‘Development Challenges in the 21st Century’, from Thursday 25th to Saturday 27th September at the UWI Learning Resource Centre, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Participation is open to scholars, policy makers, graduate students, professionals and all persons interested in finding solutions to rising energy costs, crime and unemployment, and other burning issues associated with this theme.

Other speakers at the conference opening ceremony will include Professor Clement Sankat, Pro Vice Chancellor and Campus Principal; Dr. Hamid Ghany, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Dennis Pantin, Head of the Department of Economics; Dr. Patrick Watson, Director of SALISES and Professor Timothy Shaw, Director, Institute of International Relations.

The conference promises to be a significant meeting of minds: Professors Selwyn Ryan, Brian Copeland, Karl Theodore and Compton Bourne are all expected to take part. The conference comes as part of the St Augustine Campus’ celebration of the Year of Sir Arthur Lewis, which is the second of three years dedicated to honouring the legacy of three Nobel Laureates of Caribbean descent. In 2007, the University celebrated the achievement of author Sir V. S. Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. In 2009, the University will celebrate poet Sir Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.

For more information please call 662-2002 Ext. 2401 or visit the official website at http://sta.uwi.edu/nlc/2008/ .

 

ABOUT UWI

The University of the West Indies is a contemporary, international tertiary education institution offering innovative programmes, modern facilities and collaborative links with over sixty institutions worldwide. The UWI is the largest internationally accredited university in the region, serving over 40,000 local, regional and international students. The largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, UWI has main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

ABOUT SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR LEWIS

Born in Castries St Lucia on 23rd January 1915, Sir Arthur Lewis would win the The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1979. A former lecturer and Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (1959), he was knighted in 1963 and then went on to lecture at Princeton University. In 1970, he became Director of the Caribbean Development Bank. His prize winning work is an economic model that examines the problems facing developing nations. His landmark dual sector model explains why in developing nations, so often, wages remain low and capital rents high, even as development continues at a pace. After retiring from academia, Sir Arthur Lewis returned to the Caribbean. In 1991 he died and was buried on the grounds of the St Lucia community college named in his honour.

 

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