News Releases

The UWI announces seven new Professors

For Release Upon Receipt - December 10, 2020

UWI


The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has promoted seven of its academics to Professor — the regional University’s highest academic rank. These appointments were made after thorough evaluation of the quality and quantity of their research, publications and other professional activities by internal and external assessors. Having received outstanding reviews in their respective areas of specialty, the following academics were promoted with effect from September 30, 2020:

Cave Hill Campus

§  Dr Isabelle Constant — promoted to Professor of French, Francophone African and Caribbean Literatures

Mona Campus

§  Mr Charles Grant — promoted to Professor of Applied Nuclear Sciences

§  Dr Kathleen Monteith — promoted to Professor of Caribbean History

§  Dr Monika Parshad-Asnani —  promoted to Professor of Family Medicine and Epidemiology

§  Dr Helen Trotman-Edwards — promoted to Professor of Paediatrics and Neonatology

St. Augustine Campus

§  Dr Hamid Ghany — promoted to Professor of Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies

§  Dr Godfrey Steele — promoted to Professor of Human Communication Studies

In addition to their personal academic distinction, the scholarship of the new Professors also directly serves the mission of The UWI: “to advance learning, create knowledge and foster innovation for the positive transformation of the Caribbean and the wider world.”

 

More about the Professors

Professor Isabelle Constant 

As a Senior Lecturer in French at The UWI, Cave Hill Campus, Professor Isabelle Constant made original and valuable contributions to Caribbean Literature and Caribbean Studies.  She has published three manuscripts: Les Mots étincelants de Christiane Rochefort: Languages d’utopie (1996); Le Rêve dans le roman africain et antillais (2008)—a highly original, close analysis of Francophone African and French Caribbean novels emphasizing the place and function of dreams; and most recently Le Robinson antillais, de Daniel Defoe à Patrick Chamoiseau (2015). 

One external assessor summarises, “Professor Constant’s major contributions have been in the areas of Francophone postcolonial literature where she has been very successful in increasing the visibility of marginal literature and working to canonise authors who deserve more critical attention…the impact of Professor Constant’s Le Rêve dans le roman africain et antillais cannot be overstated.”

Professor Constant holds a PhD from the University of Arizona (1994) and a DEA from Paris-Sorbonne University (1991). In addition to her three books, she has authored 16 peer-reviewed journal articles with three not yet published; 12 book reviews; eight book chapters and nine conference proceedings. Professor Constant’s contributions to academia have also included producing peer-reviewed online teaching material as well as translation editing for several books and brochures.

Professor Constant is considered “a superb scholar, a gifted researcher and a talented writer [with] original ideas, penetrating analyses and insightful studies.” She has served on the Administrative Board of the Congrès International d’Études Francophone (CIEF) and also as its representative for the Caribbean region. Professor Constant was reviewer for the Nouvelles Etudes Francophone (NEF) from 2009 to 2018– a journal of Francophone studies and from 2015-2016 was a reviewer for Parallèles – a translation studies journal.

In 2016, she was named ‘Most Outstanding Researcher’ by the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Cave Hill.

 

Professor Charles Grant, FInstP

Nuclear Physicist, Professor Charles Grant is Director General of the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) at The UWI, Mona Campus. Under his leadership, the Centre is growing as the hub of nuclear technology for the region and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) around the world. He works to mainstream nuclear technology for regional and international sustainable developmental goals. One assessor highlights his research career as demonstrating “a willingness and ability to tackle problems that are interesting scientifically, important methodologically, and critical for the protection of human health.” Fittingly, his work has received over €6.8 million in funding including grants from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

At the ICENS, Grant served as Project Manager and Technical Director for a core conversion project to replace weapon grade fuel with Low Enriched Uranium in Jamaica, Canada and the USA. The project was an international partnership with the IAEA. He has also designed and implemented an inter-regional IAEA project with participation from 19 countries and one regional project across eight countries.

In service to the region, Professor Grant has drafted several IAEA Country Programme Frameworks (CPFs) outlining a road map to integrate nuclear techniques for developmental goals. He has also contributed to the Regional Strategic Profile (RSP) for English-speaking IAEA Member States. The IAEA has approved his proposal for the first multi-purpose Gamma Irradiation Facility in the English-speaking Caribbean. The facility will contribute to crop improvement and integrated vector management using gamma rays.

Professor Grant has published 30 peer-reviewed journal articles, three book chapters, 10 conference proceedings and numerous technical reports. He is a reviewer for four academic journals including Journal of Radio-analytical and Nuclear Chemistry. Professor Grant is currently Chairman of the Hazardous Waste Laboratory Clean-up Ad Hoc Committee (HAWAC) and technical board member for the Regional Cooperation Agreement for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARCAL).

He gained his BSc Physics (1990) an MSc in Radiation and Environmental Protection (1992) from the University of Surrey and Fellow of the Institute of Physics (2019). In 2020, Professor Grant was named the recipient of The UWI Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Public Service.

 

Professor Kathleen E. A. Monteith

Professor Kathleen Monteith is described by an external assessor as “a leading scholar in the business and economic history of the Caribbean.” Her research focus was commended for being a “very impressive range of subfields,” which includes banking, commodities, entrepreneurship, regional economic history, biography, globalisation and transnational business history.

Professor Monteith’s publication record includes 18 book chapters, journal articles and encyclopaedic entries, along with two self-authored, and three co-edited monographs. These include Plantation Coffee in Jamaica, 1790-1848 (2019); Depression to Decolonisation. Barclays Bank (DCO) in the West Indies, 1926-1962 (2008); West Indian Business History: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (2010); The Caribbean, the Atlantic World and Global Transformation. Lectures in Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations in History (2010); and Jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: History, Heritage and Culture (2002).

Her two self-authored monographs are major contributions to the business and economic history of the Caribbean. Depression to Decolonisation. Barclays Bank (DCO) in the West Indies, 1926-1962 which received The UWI Mona Principal’s Award for Best Publication, has the distinction of being the first major business history of the then largest multinational bank’s operations in the English-speaking Caribbean. Plantation Coffee in Jamaica, 1790-1848, a recipient of a Finalist Award in the Historical (Non Fiction) category of the 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group, USA, is the first comprehensive historical analysis of Jamaica’s coffee industry. Being her most recent major publication, this book examines the implications of the structural shifts on the global stage within the then emerging global economy on the economic and social landscape of Jamaica through the structure and performance of its coffee industry during the last decades of slavery and the immediate post-slavery period.  

A Historian by profession, Professor Monteith began her at The UWI in 1995 as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology, Mona Campus, in which she has taught Caribbean history and historical methodology courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and supervised 15 postgraduate students. She has also served as an Internal and Independent Examiner of MPhil and PhD theses in History. She also designed and participated in the revision of a number of courses and programmes offered by the Department, and served two consecutive terms as Head of the Department from 2010 to 2016.

Her public service on behalf of the University include serving as Board Director of the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica and Memory Bank, and Liberty Hall, The Legacy of Marcus Garvey; Member of the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO, Culture Advisory Committee; Board Director of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust; Member of the Jamaica Memory of the World Committee, Jamaica UNESCO Commission; and Member of the National Library of Jamaica’s Collections Development/Information Systems and Services and Management committee.

Her other professional contributions include her role as Editor of the Journal of Caribbean History and the Jamaican Historical Review as well as serving on the Executive Committee of the Association of Caribbean Historians, and on the Council of the Association of Caribbean Economic Historians. She has also served as a peer reviewer of book and article manuscripts for academic publishers, including the Cambridge University Press.

Professor Monteith received her BA and MPhil degrees in History from The UWI, Mona. She pursued doctoral studies upon being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, gaining her PhD degree in 1997 from the University of Reading, Centre for International Business History, UK.

 

Professor Monika Parshad-Asnani

UWI alumna, Professor Monika Parshad-Asnani is a Family Physician, Epidemiologist and Sickle Cell Disease expert. Senior Lecturer at the Sickle Cell Unit, Caribbean Institute for Health Research at the Mona Campus, she also teaches within the Family Medicine programme at The UWI, has supervised 16 graduate research students at The UWI and overseas universities, and provides clinical care to persons with Sickle Cell disease.

Professor Parshad-Asnani pursued her medical studies at The UWI gaining her MBBS in 1992, followed by DM in Family Medicine in 2006 and PhD in Epidemiology in 2014. Her research focuses on sickle cell nephropathy and the psycho-social experiences of patients with the disease. She has published three books, three book chapters, 41 journal articles, 12 posters and 25 abstracts. She has presented at over 50 international conferences and delivered over 50 invited guest lectures locally, regionally and internationally. External assessors have identified her publication record as “impressive and consistent” and have commended the international recognition of her work which has “contributed significantly to practitioners’ understanding of progressive kidney disease in patients with sickle cell disease.”

She serves on several journal review committees and has led organisation of many local, regional and international conferences. She has received research grants from The UWI, Duke University, UNICEF, Savings Brains programme, Caribbean Health Research Council (now CARPHA) and other institutions. She has served in various capacities on the board of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians since 2006, and is a Board member of the Caribbean Network of Researchers in Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia since 2014. Her service to the public includes media appearances to advance public education on Sickle Cell Disease.

Professor Parshad-Asnani has received several Principal’s Awards in recognition of her work; ‘Best Research Publication’ (2016), ‘Most Outstanding Researcher – Faculty of Medical Sciences’ (2016), and ‘Most Outstanding Researcher – Faculty of Medical Science’ (2018).

 

Professor Helen Trotman-Edwards

Paediatrics and Neonatology Specialist, Professor Helen Trotman-Edwards is the Programme Director for the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery programme and a Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

A UWI alumna, Professor Trotman-Edwards graduated with her Doctor of Medicine (Paediatrics) in 1996. She also completed a Fellowship in Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine at the Oregon Health and Sciences University (1999-2000); a Master of Public Health, The UWI, Mona (2005); an Advanced Diploma in Research Ethics, Clarkson University (2016) and a Master of Science in Bioethics, Clarkson University/Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2017).

Professor Trotman-Edwards has published 46 peer-reviewed journal articles, 32 abstracts and a book chapter in addition to her 2005 monograph Newborn Resuscitation and Care Pocket Field Guide for Health Workers, Ministry of Health, Jamaica. She is a reviewer for the International Journal of Paediatrics and The West Indian Medical Journal among others. In 2014 Professor Trotman-Edwards collaborated on THE European Union funded project – a prospective study on the Incidence, Risk Factors and Outcome of Prematurity in the Jamaican Population with grant funding of €200,000.00

Professor Trotman-Edwards’ service to the public has included her role as a trainer and organiser of the Neonatal Resuscitation workshop with Jamaica’s Ministry of Health. She is also a member of the Paediatric Association of Jamaica. Since 2000 she has been a Consultant Neonatologist at the Newborn Special Care Unit, University Hospital of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, where she has contributed to the growth of Neonatology as a sub-speciality of Paediatrics in Jamaica.   She has also served as a member of the Caribbean Public Health Agency’s (CARPHA) Research Ethics Committee (2016-2018) and provided technical input for the agency’s 2014 publication on Maternal Care in Pregnancy Guidelines for the Caribbean.

Professor Helen Trotman-Edwards has excelled in teaching and learning and supervised 30 graduate researchers. One assessor notes “Professor Trotman-Edwards demonstrates ability in terms of teaching, supervision and support of trainees and less senior colleagues…” For this excellence she has received The UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award (2016) and The UWI Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2018). 

 

Professor Hamid Ghany

Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at The UWI, St. Augustine Campus, Professor Hamid Ghany has contributed significantly to The UWI and the regional community in the area of Political Science. 

Professor Ghany pursued undergraduate studies at The UWI and then went on to Fordham University, New York for his Master of Arts in Political Science. In 1987, he received his PhD in Constitutional Law and Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.

Since 1993, Professor Ghany has taught undergraduate and postgraduate Political Science and Governance courses. He was the Course Coordinator and lecturer for the Foundation Course, Law, Governance, Economy and Society from 1999-2012 and led the effort to convert the course for online delivery for the Open Campus in 2008-2009. Formerly Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2003-2012), Professor Ghany created the Faculty’s Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies Unit. He also created the Sir Arthur Lewis Distinguished Lecture Series at SALISES since 2018.

Professor Ghany is a well-respected political analyst in Trinidad and Tobago and was commended by an external assessor as a rare “…public intellectual who can translate complex constitutional and political matters into terms that ordinary people can understand.” He was appointed to Constitution Commissions of Trinidad and Tobago in 1988 and 2013 and has contributed to constitutional reform efforts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia.

As an academic, Professor Ghany’s peer-reviewed portfolio features three books, including his 2018 Constitutional Development in the Commonwealth Caribbean; 21 book chapters and 13 journal articles. He has written several other scholarly works, technical reports and presented frequently at international conferences. Professor Ghany has served as a reviewer for The University of the West Indies Press, International Political Science Review, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Social and Economic Studies and Caribbean Quarterly.  

In 2012, Professor Ghany was recognised for his long and meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago as an Educator with the nation’s second highest award, the Chaconia Medal (Gold).

 

Professor Godfrey A. Steele

For more than two decades Professor Godfrey A. Steele has championed the development of Communication Studies across faculties and departments of The UWI, St. Augustine Campus.

Formerly Lecturer in Communication Skills for Medical Sciences (1995-2004), Professor Steele is currently Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Education. He was Coordinator of the Communication Studies Undergraduate Programme (1999-2009) and the Human Communication Studies Graduate Programme (2009-2017) and Deputy Dean, Graduate Studies and Research (2011).

Beginning in 1992, Professor Steele introduced new courses including Business Communication for the Department of Management Studies and Communication Skills for Health Personnel and Communication Skills for the Health Professions for the Faculty of Medical Sciences. He designed and introduced a new undergraduate minor in Communication Studies (1999) and a new major with a suite of new courses (2002-2007) for the Faculty of Humanities and Education. From 2008 he turned his attention to graduate studies, introducing a new programme in Human Communication Studies, and graduate teaching: Human Communication Theory, Health Communication Theory, Organisational and Corporate Communications Theory, Research Methods, and Communication Project.

Professor Steele has published extensively in Health Communication and Interpersonal/Mediated Communication. His peer-reviewed publications feature four books—including Health Communication: Principles and Practices (2019), nine book chapters, 17 journal articles, 13 conference papers, five technical reports, and he has 79 refereed conference papers. He currently has two book manuscripts in preparation: Communication, Culture and Conflict and Health Communication: Policy and Practice. Professor Steele received The UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award (2000) and Most Outstanding Classroom Research (2008). He has supervised 20 postgraduate students and has two active PhD candidates. One assessor commended his continued productivity over 20 years as “remarkable”.

Professor Steele served as Conference Chair for the inaugural and the 2nd Biennial Human Communication Studies International Conferences in 2013 and 2015. He also co-founded The Journal of Human Communication Studies in the Caribbean, becoming Editor, and the Association for Human Communication Studies in the Caribbean.

Professor Steele holds a PhD (Linguistics) (2000), an MA in Education (1995) and a BA (Hons.) in English (1982) all from The UWI, St. Augustine. 

 

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About The UWI

For over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies; the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ); The UWI-University of Havana Centre for Sustainable Development; The UWI-Coventry Institute for Industry-Academic Partnership with the University of Coventry and the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research with the University of Glasgow.

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. 

As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. The world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for 2019 and 2020, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2018 and 2019, then top 20 in 2020. The UWI has been the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.  For more, visit 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.)

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