“Freedom: Retrospective and Prospective” is the theme for this year’s Mona Academic Conference which takes place from Friday, August 31 to Sunday, September 2 at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The Conference officially begins with an Opening Ceremony on Friday, August 31 at 6:00 pm at the Undercroft, UWI Mona. The Minister of Education and Youth, Honourable Maxine Henry-Wilson will bring greetings on this occasion. The keynote address will be delivered by Professor Ruth Simmons, Professor of Comparative Literature and African Studies and President of Brown University.
The Conference continues over two days with panel discussions and presentations in the Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWI, Mona beginning at 8:30 am daily. The sub-themes under which various topics will be presented are: “Sustaining the Memory,” “Freedom Road,” “Rethinking Freedom,” Legacy” and “Unfinished Business.” Topics being presented include: Song as Enactment of Ancestral History by Professor Maureen Warner-Lewis, Africans in Early English Jamaica by Dr. Silvia Kouwenberg, Freedom Road-The Empowerment of the Enslaved Population by the Eighteenth Century by Dr. Heather Cateau, 200 Years since the Abolition of the Slave Trade by Juline Francis-Gordon and Reparations: Taking Forward the Caribbean’s Case by Professor Hilary Beckles.
Students, staff and the general public are invited to attend.

The registration fee is J$500 per day, and students with identification cards J$250 per day. For further information on the Conference interested individuals are invited to visit the website at: http://www.mona.uwi.edu/conferences/2007/monaconf/ or contact Jennifer Clarke by telephone at: 702-4241or e-mail: jennifer.clarke@uwimona.edu.jm.