The UWI Global Campus at Morne Fortuné, will tomorrow (April 18), host its 10th Anniversary Patricia Charles Lecture as the entity celebrates a decade of deliveries by local and regional presenters to audiences at home and abroad.
Mrs. Patricia Charles was a former Resident Tutor of the School of Continuing Studies in Saint Lucia (now The UWI Global Campus), who dedicated her life to the furtherance of the Arts, Education and Culture in her adopted home – Saint Lucia.
Established in 2010, the Patricia Charles Memorial Lecture celebrates her life and work, and has become a much-anticipated fixture on The Open Campus Saint Lucia’s annual calendar of events.
This year’s lecture – entitled “Rethinking OUR Development: Imperatives for Structural Transformation” – will be delivered by Artist, Creative Consultant and Economist, Dr Adrian Augier.
Dr Augier is described by UWI Global Campus as “an accomplished development economist and entrepreneur” with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Political Science and a Master’s in Development Finance and Planning.
An award-winning poet and producer, Dr Augier is also the 2010 Caribbean Laureate for Arts and Letters, as awarded by the ANSA Foundation.
In 2012, The UWI conferred an Honourary Doctorate upon Dr Augier for his significant contributions to regional culture and development.
The UWI Global Campus has hosted nine Patricia Charles Memorial Lectures since 2010.
In 2010, a lecture entitled “Crime and Calypso” was delivered by Dr. Hollis Urban Lester Liverpool – better known as The Mighty Chalkdust, who also spent two additional days at the (then) UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia conducting a workshop in writing calypso for practitioners of the art form.
In 2011 the theme was “Islands Beyond Envy: Liberating Nation Language in the Caribbean”, delivered by Caribbean author and literary scholar Professor Carolyn Cooper. She also visited with students of the St Mary’s College and delivered a ‘prep talk’ prepared for the students entitled “Addi de Teacha – Lessons from the lyrics of Vybes Kartel”, which addressed the issue of skin-bleaching and what it says about Caribbean people who engage in that practice.
In 2012 a lecture entitled “Negotiating a National Development Agenda: The Role of Culture” was delivered by Governor General Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy at the Bay Gardens Hotel.
The 2013 lecture was entitled “Exorcising the Demons of Colonialism: Creating Participating Citizens through Democracy in Education” and delivered by Dr Joel Warrican, Director of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines Community College. The lecture challenged those present to reflect upon the many ills within the region’s education system and to consider the changes needed if Caribbean people truly believe in the ideals of democracy.”
In 2014, the lecture was entitled “What’s the Use of Culture” and was delivered by Dr Merle Hodge, a veteran Caribbean cultural and social activist and retired Senior Lecturer of the University of the West Indies (UWI), where she taught Academic Writing; Creative Writing, West Indian Literature and a course on African-American Women writers.”
The 2015 lecture on “Language, Identity, and the Politics of Cultural Erosion” was delivered by former Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor Emerita of The UWI Open Campus, Professor Hazel Simmons Mc Donald.
The 2016 lecture was “Lakou: Caribbean Indigenous Education and Development” and delivered by renowned Trinidadian theatre artiste Professor Rawle Gibbons, who headed The UWI’s Centre for Creative and Festival Arts, St. Augustine Campus for 20 years.
The 2017 lecture was on “Education, Social Justice and Advocacy: The UWI to the World” and delivered by Professor Verene Shepherd, University Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies and Professor of Social History at the Mona Campus of the University
of the West Indies.
The 2019 lecture was delivered by Ms Esther Phillips – Poet Laureate of Barbados and Editor of BIM-Arts for the 21st Century and was entitled ” The Poet as Seer: An Examination of the Poet’s Role in the Society”.
Thursday’s lecture starts at 7:00 p.m.