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April 2014
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After a year of teaching an introductory Political Science class at Brooklyn College, I found myself back in Trinidad. I was to start a PhD in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), UWI, St Augustine campus. I remember the proposal I wrote as part of the programme’s application. I wanted to look at women and development in the Caribbean and of course my theoretical frame was all dependency theory. In 2009, about a year and half into the programme, as the time came to truly decide on a thesis research topic, I looked at the political situation in Argentina. Christina Fernandez had been elected President, but as I looked deeper at the region, Venezuela not just piqued, but stole my interest. A revolution of which the impact to poor women was unquestionable, in addition to a leader in President Hugo Chávez – I was meant to look at Venezuela. As we sat in class discussing our topics one day, Professor Jane Parpart, the former Graduate Coordinator of IGDS wondered aloud about Professor Girvan. I remember interrupting her and the class loudly, “Where is he?” “He is right next door, in IR” she said, IR is the Institute for International Relations, literally next door to the IGDS. “Maybe we can see if he can be your supervisor,” she said. I didn’t dare hope. When she told me that he was considering it but wanted to meet me first, I panicked. No way would this work out, I said to myself. But that is how one thing led another. He would always say to me that he was not a ‘gender scholar.’ I would laugh because although I studied gender, his ability to create connections based on a solid epistemological foundation, would often help me to complicate and then further unravel the theoretical gendered underpinnings of my work. This was late 2009 to early 2010 and I remember that the institutional support in Venezuela for my first trip there, scheduled for April 2010, fell through. I was working at an IGDS conference when Professor Girvan called. The conversation was a very hard one as I declared that I would visit Venezuela anyway with or without institutional support. While he did not agree, he stood by me and when I got back from Venezuela after a preliminary three-week trip, I could tell that our relationship had changed. He knew that I was committed to my research, to my PhD and to working with him; and I knew that I had a strong supporter. When President Hugo Chávez passed away on March 5, 2013, Professor Girvan called me for a quick chat. I think he was one of the few persons who understood how this had and would affect me and how deep a loss I felt. Throughout December 2013, Professor Girvan and I went through my thesis page by page. When we could not meet face to face, we would have Skype meetings. Often I would get tired going through my work, the words I had written and rewritten, but Professor Girvan would never tire and this would push me to get the work done. We spoke on December 30th 2013. At the end of the conversation, I realized that I would not speak to him again until the new year, so I took the opportunity to not only wish him a Happy New Year, but to thank him for all his support. We promised to speak soon in the New Year after his family vacation. The new year came… It is hard to put into words the impact that Professor Girvan has had on my life, and not just from an academic or theoretical standpoint. He was my teacher. He was my supporter. He was my defender (especially when my research seminars did not go as planned). He was that person who made me feel that my work would make a difference. He was that person that made me realize my own potential. He was that person who has brought me to a 300 page thesis; and now I am ready to submit and I want him to be here – not just for me, but for his wife and children, for the world. I believe Professor Girvan to be one of the greatest intellectual minds of the Caribbean and Latin American region and I know many will mourn him. Speaking of himself in his 2007 essay, ‘One Thing Led to Another,’ on which this tribute is based, he said, “I do not see how thinking and informed people of today can fail to address these issues; or at least can fail to take account of them in the work that they do.” One thing did lead to another and I worked with a man whose works I read, whose theories I critically analysed and who, after all was said and done, became my teacher. He will always be my teacher. There is so much he has written that I am yet to get my hands on. But as long as I write, the work of Professor Girvan will continue. I will never forget him and while my heart breaks, I hope he knew of the tremendous respect, admiration and love I have for him. So again, one thing led to another and I am proud to say that I AM a student of Professor Norman Girvan. The late Professor Norman Girvan was the supervisor for PhD student of IGDS, Aleah Ranjitsingh. You can read the original 2007 essay, ‘One Thing Led to Another’. |
I was introduced to the work of Professor Norman Girvan in 2005 when I began studies for a Master’s degree in Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. I had never taken any classes which specifically dealt with Caribbean political thought or even development for that matter. So, as the lecturer, Dr Judith Duncker, spoke about Caribbean dependency theory, I felt as if that theory was meant to find me and vice versa. It is strange to speak of a development theory this way, but as I sought to find or better yet, position myself in political theory, I knew that this was my worldview. One’s worldview can change, but the work of Professor Girvan struck a deeper chord within me. My Master’s thesis looked at Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR) at a time when Venezuela had become a member of the bloc; and this is how one thing led to another.