News Releases

UWI hosts Cropper Foundation lecture on the Environment

For Release Upon Receipt - August 25, 2010

St. Augustine


Mervyn Claxton to speak on Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development

The Cropper Foundation this year celebrates its tenth anniversary with the Third Lecture in the Distinguished Lecture Series on the Environment, to be held in collaboration with The Ministry of Housing and the Environment and The University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine Campus, Faculty of Science and Agriculture. The event, which is free of charge and open to the public, takes place on Wednesday 1st September from 6:30 p.m. at The UWI Faculty of Engineering Lecture Theatre 1, Block 13. 

Themed ‘Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development’, this public lecture will be delivered by Mr. Mervyn Claxton, a researcher, author and consultant in the field of sustainable development. Claxton has had a long and distinguished institutional career as a college teacher in West Africa for five years. He was a diplomat with the Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Service for twelve years, and an international civil servant for nineteen years with UNESCO, where he served in a number of senior positions, including that of UNESCO Representative to the Caribbean. Claxton’s lecture is meant to contribute to public awareness and education on the multiple dimensions and issues of sustainable development.

The evening will also include the launch of “Moving Right Along”, by Professor Funso Aiyejina, Dean of The UWI St Augustine Faculty of Humanities and Education.  “Moving Right Along” is an anthology of short stories from participants in The Cropper Foundation’s Caribbean Creative Writers’ Residential Workshops, held between 2000 and 2008. The anthology is dedicated to the late John Cropper, co-founder of The Cropper Foundation.  

Carded to speak at the event are Professor Clement Sankat, UWI Pro Vice Chancellor and St Augustine Campus Principal, and Professor Norman Girvan, Professorial Research Fellow at The UWI Institute of International Relations. Several dignitaries have been invited to attend, including The Honourable Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar; The Honourable Minister of Housing and the Environment, Dr. Roodal Moonilal; T&T Representative, Inter-American Development Bank, Iwan Sewberath Misser; T&T Representative, UNDP, Dr. Marcia de CastroACS Secretary General, Ambassador Falla; as well as several representatives of the Diplomatic core. 

For more information, please contact Mrs. Indira Ousman, Administrative Assistant, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, at indira.ousman@sta.uwi.edu or (868) 662-2002 Ext. 3903.

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

 

About Mervyn Claxton

Mervyn Claxton is a national of Trinidad and Tobago. He graduated from The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (Jamaica) with a Bachelor degree in History, and went on to pursue graduate studies in International Relations at the London School of Economics. Since 1996, Mr. Claxton has been based in Paris and working as an international consultant in sustainable development, with special emphasis on the promotion and stimulation of development through the use of indigenous culture, traditions and knowledge. He is an active researcher and author of 14 publications, 7 of which were published by UNESCO. 

 

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, 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 over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 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, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

 

Contact

  • Mrs. Indira Ousman, Administrative Assistant, Faculty of Science and Agriculture

  • Tel.: (868) 662-2002 Ext. 3903
  • Email: indira.ousman@sta.uwi.edu