UWI Learning Resource Centre

2007: Year of Sir V.S. Naipaul

As we look forward to the year of Naipaul, you can look forward to the following events.

Readings & Book Signings - April 20
Sir V.S. Naipaul will be reading from his work in April at the St. Augustine Campus as part of a year of events to celebrate the writings of the Nobel Laureate.

Lectures
Celebrations include the Distinguished Open Lecture Series. These series of lectures will take place at The University of the West Indies between February and June in celebration of the contribution of the world-renowned, Trinidadian-born writer to Caribbean letters and literature. Lectures will be presented by Professor Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University, Professor Gordon Rohlehr, Professor Kenneth Ramchand and Lawrence Scott.

An Evening of Appreciation - April 18

Symposium - April 19
The Liberal Arts Department, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine will host a symposium entitled, “V.S. Naipaul: Created in the West Indies” on Thursday April 19th, 2007 at a venue to be announced. The symposium, which will discuss themes such as Naipaul on Writing, Film and the Literary Imagination, Home and Belonging and History and Representation.

 

2008: Year of Sir Arthur Lewis

Sir William Arthur Lewis (January 23, 1915 – June 15, 1991). 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.

See Sir Arthur Lewis' Bio or learn more about Sir Arthur Lewis' work

 

2009: Year of Derek Walcott

Derek Alton Walcott, born in Castries, St Lucia on 23rd January 1930, has been described as the greatest poet writing in the English Language today by fellow Russian Laureate Joseph Brodsky. Poet, playwright and painter, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. In 2006 he was praised by the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Christopher Patton as a “Great poet, who while expressing your love for your homeland have at the same time brought many times and nations, indeed the whole world, within the compass of your magnificent verse”.

An alumnus of The University of the West Indies, he has been awarded the Queen's (Elizabeth II) Medal for Poetry, the Trinity Cross by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Premio Grinzane Cavour award by the Italian government.

Learn more about Derek Walcott and his work