Verene A. Shepherd, Professor of Social History is a fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society and University Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies at University of the West Indies. She is the host of “Talking History” on Nationwide 90 FM and immediate past Chair of the United Nation’s Working Group of Experts on People of African descent. She has also served as President of the Association of Caribbean Historians and was the first woman to chair the Board of Trustees of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (2006-2007)

A graduate of the UWI, Mona and the University of Cambridge, where she read for her PhD in history, Professor Shepherd’s research interests are Jamaican Economic History during slavery (especially the history of non-sugar activities); Migration and Diasporas, and Caribbean Women’s history; and she has published widely on these topics. She has been the recipient of several awards, including the Jamaica National Heritage Trust Award for her contribution to Jamaican history and heritage and the Africana Studies distinguished African Award (2007) from Florida International University. In 2013 she was awarded the Jamaica Order of Distinction (Commander Class) for “outstanding service to Education in particular History and Gender Studies’,