Dr. Jenny Jemmott was a teacher par excellence, and the Department of History and Archaeology at the UWI, Mona campus was fortunate to have had her services for a number of years, where she taught the First Year Course, Atlantic World History, and a number of Heritage Studies courses at levels 2 and 3.  Her teaching and examination duties were without doubt excellent, and for which she was highly respected by both her colleagues and students. She also supervised graduate students research papers. Jenny was among the few Lecturers in the UWI who consistently scored 4 and above in student assessments, and had on more than one occasion scored 4.9 and 5.

This no doubt reflected her uncanny ability in connecting with her students, which served the Department well with her as its liaison officer with the History and Archaeology (Students) Society (formerly the History Club), and in registration for courses. Indeed, when the Department first introduced the BA in Heritage Studies, there was very little uptake in the courses. The following year Jenny was asked to teach the Level one course in programme – Introduction to Heritage Studies, and there followed a ballooning in student registration, with that intake filtering into the Level 2 and 3 courses in the programme.  She was the reason for that.

Appointed Lecturer in History in August 2012, Dr Jemmott began teaching in the Department in 2003 as a Temporary Assistant Lecturer, and then Temporary Lecturer in  2006. During this time she pursued her PhD in History, which was awarded with “High Commendation” in 2005.

Jenny’s commitment to history teaching is evident in the publication The Caribbean, The Atlantic World & Global Transformation. Lectures in Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations in History she co-edited with colleagues, Aleric Josephs and Kathleen Monteith, and published in 2010. Both herself and Aleric Josephs are the authors of the very useful, analytical Introduction to this volume which was specifically done for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations in History, a text which has been in great demand amongst High School students and teachers as well as First and Second Year University students of History throughout the region.

Her other publications include articles of unquestionable academic quality. Her article, “Recovering the Lost: Efforts at Re-Uniting Victims of Forced Separation after 1834. Some Case Studies from Jamaica”, published in The Journal of Caribbean History in 2007 was recognized for its excellence, receiving the Principal’s Award for Best Publication (article) in the Faculty of Humanities and Education for 2007/08.

Jenny’s book Ties That Bind. The Black Family in Post Slavery Jamaica, 1834-1882, published in 2015 by the University of the West Indies Press, is of critical acclaim and is central to numerous history courses as well as courses in sociology and gender studies.
 
It is a seminal contribution to Jamaican and West Indian historiography, shifting away from the traditional focus of family forms and structures to assess the relationships and interactions within Black family networks in post-emancipation Jamaica. In this work Dr Jemmott uncovers issues that were intrinsic to the former enslaved peoples’ notions about family and well-being – including the need to reconstitute members separated during enslavement, attainment of shelter, access to land, health-care and education for their children, assertion of parental rights, and autonomy over family labour and liberty, all of which embodied a reclaiming of dignity and personhood. Her central argument in this foundational work is that, “irrespective of challenges facing the black family, the fact that so many Black Jamaicans engaged in some form of family advocacy in the worst of times, as well as in the best of times, affirms the endurance of the ties that bind”.

Dr. Jemmott served with unstinting loyalty and commitment to the Department and by extension the University of the West Indies. Her keen eye on course and programme review has been critical to the review of all courses and programmes within the within the Department during her tenure. She represented the Department on the Faculty Sub-committee for Quality Assurance from 2008, and was a well-respected member of that committee for her keen eye and attention to detail of all courses and programmes which come before that committee. In this regard she made a tremendous contribution to the implementation of quality assurance guidelines within the Faculty of Humanities and Education.

Dr. Jemmott was also a member of the then resuscitated Mona Campus Heritage Management Committee. She also represented the Department and the University well in her various public appearances, and participation on public programmes, outreach activities of the as well as by her membership on professional organisations.

A signal outreach activity on behalf of the Department, and by extension the UWI, which Jenny performed, was her role as principal researcher and writer of the Jamaica National Foundation’s Parish History project. The purpose of this project is to produce, an illustrated history of the parishes of Jamaica. Made available on a digital platform managed by the Jamaica National Foundation, these illustrated histories convey to the general public in an engaging way, the highlights of the historical development of each of the parishes, while at the same time capturing significant features of the socio-economic and built landscape which are characteristically associated with each of them.  Dr Jemmott managed this project assiduously, writing the majority of the histories herself. She continued to work on this project up to the time of her illness and eventual passing.

Jenny remained a close and wonderful friend to former colleagues after her retirement from the UWI in 2015, all of whom miss her dearly.
 
May her soul rest in peace.