The 12^th Annual Edward Baugh Distinguished Lecture in honour of Emeritus Professor, Dr. Edward Baugh will be hosted at the University of the West Indies on Monday, November 26, 2018 at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts.  Dr Baugh was a former Head of the Department, Dean and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and General Studies.

This year’s keynote speaker is Caribbean academic and his former student, Professor Rhonda Cobham-Sander. She will speak on the topic, Where is Your Kingdom of the Word? Caribbean Writers and the Quarrel With Language.

Members of the public are invited to attend. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.

Professor Cobham-Sander, has had an outstanding career in academia. Her book, I and I: Epitaphs for the Self in the Work of V.S. Naipaul, Kamau Brathwaite, and Derek Walcott, was published in 2016 by the University of the West Indies Press, it examines how these three famous Caribbean writers attempt to consolidate their literary legacies in their later works. Cobham-Sander is currently working on two other book projects: Amital Queer: Aunts, Aunty Men and other Anansis, which explores how Caribbean writers use the idea of the cross-gendered aunt (“tantie”) of oral performance to both subvert and support class and gender boundaries, and The Digital Decade: African Literature and Social Media 2007-2017.

Professor Cobham-Sander has also co-edited (with Merle Collins) the volume, Watchers and Seekers: Creative Writing by Black Women in Britain (1987), and she has edited or co-edited special issues of the journals Callaloo, on the writer, Jamaica Kincaid; the Massachusetts Review, on “Contemporary Caribbean Culture and Art”; and Research in African Literatures, on “African Women Writers”.

Professor Cobham-Sander has published over 30 articles and book chapters and some 20 reviews and occasional pieces on Caribbean and African literature exploring a broad range of issues, from nation, history and language to gender, race and sexuality. Her work has appeared in journals such as Small Axe, Anthurium, Caribbean Quarterly, Jamaica Journal, World Literature Written in English, PMLA, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, The Black Scholar and others.

Among the many awards, grants and fellowships she has received are the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the University of Bayreuth (1995-96), the National Humanities Center Fellowship (1994-94) and the New England Outstanding Black Scholars Award. Professor Cobham-Sander’s early promise as an academic is evident in the awards she received as a student. An alumnus of the UWI, Professor Cobham-Sander graduated from Mona with a first class honours degree in English Literature and received several awards as an undergraduate. She went on to do postgraduate studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland where she was awarded the Sir James Irvine Scholarship (1975-79).

In addition to these accomplishments, Professor Cobham-Sander has also held significant administrative appointments. In addition to serving on a number of committees at Amherst College, her commitment to the Amherst community and her interest in the study of race and gender led to an appointment as Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion (2004-08).

Dr Cobham-Sander is the Emily C. Jordan Folger Professor of English and Black Studies and Chair of the English Department at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts.

Previous speakers in the Edward Baugh Lecture series include Trinidadian writer, Earl Lovelace, internationally recognised professors, Helen Tiffin, Diana Bryden, Carolyn Cooper, Glyne Griffith and Evelyn O’Callaghan.

About The UWI

For the past 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region. In 2018, The UWI celebrates its evolution from 1948 as a university college in Jamaica with 33 medical students to an internationally respected regional university with near 50,000 students. Today, The UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and an Open Campus.

The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. Its seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.

The UWI has been a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of our people. As the regional institution commemorates its 70th anniversary milestone, it will celebrate its students, faculty, administrators, alumni, governments, and partners in the public and private sector. The anniversary commemoration will focus on reflection as well as projection for the future with an emphasis on social justice and the economic transformation of the region. Website: www.uwi.edu and www.uwi.edu/70.