The first two recipients of the Trilateral Reconnection Programme Scholarships are Shakeisha Wilson from the Department of Community and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences and Amina Blackwood-Meeks, Institute of Caribbean Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Education.    Both are PhD candidates at the UWI, Mona.   Shakeisha is currently conducting research on HIV/AIDS and Amina’s centres on Storytelling as a means of preserving local culture. Both will conduct their research at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.

The Trilateral Reconnection Programme, under which the scholarships are offered, allows for five students from the UWI, Mona, to attend at the UCT for approximately three months for research and seminar presentations. Two students will also attend Brown University, Rhode Island on a similar exchange.

The Trilateral Reconnection Project (TRP) is an agreement between the University of The West Indies, the University of Cape Town and Brown University, which calls for student and faculty exchanges and joint research projects between the three universities. The project was initiated by the Centre for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies, Africana Studies Department at Brown University and the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

The project, which expires in June of this year, is funded by the Coca Cola Foundation, and administered by the Centre for Caribbean Thought, Department of Government. The exchange will also see four students from the UCT, attending at the UWI and two at Brown University. The scholarships are fully funded.

The UWI is currently accepting applications for the final phase of the project, which requires students to be attending the institution to which assigned by June of this year.