The University of the West Indies

Institute for Gender and Development Studies
(Regional Coordinating Unit)

Researchers

Researcher Biography Research Interests Publications
Prof. Opal Palmer Adisa

Professor Opal Palmer Adisa is University Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Regional Coordinating Office, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Cultural activist, award-winning poet, novelist, performance artist and educator, Adisa’s commitment to social change and development is chronicled in her work, which from her first 1985 collection, explores gender dynamic, sexual abuse and classism.

Academic Interests 

  • Child Abuse (sexual and physical)

  • Caribbean Masculinities

  • Domestic Violence

  • Socio-economic Conditions confronting working class women

 

Books (partial)

  • Love’s Promise, (stories that examine the lives of women related to GBD, Sexual Abuse and other domestic relationships) Caribbean Reads, 2017

  • Four-Headed Woman, (poetry - examines the multiple roles a woman has to juggle, issues that dictate and limit the domestic space, mensuration, madness, and the restroom as a political site to advocate women's issues such as rape)Tia Chucha Press, October 2013
Bronty Liverpool-Williams

Bronty Liverpool-Williams: is currently employed at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Regional Coordinating Office (IGDS, RCO) as Administrative Officer. She previously served as Deputy Chief Inspector of the National Education Inspector in Jamaica and Deputy Headmistress of the St. Vincent Girls’ High School. She has an MPhil and BA (First Class Honours) in History from The University of the West Indies (St. Augustine campus), as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Management from University of Technology (UTECH).

Academic Interests

  • History

  • Educational Management

  • Project management

Outreach Interests

  • Quality Management in Education

  • Competitive tennis

Published Work

  • Liverpool-Williams, Bronty. 2019. “Calvert Jones: An Appreciation of Caribbean Life. An Interview with Bronty Liverpool-Williams”. Interviewing the Caribbean: Winter 2018.

  • Liverpool-Williams, Bronty. 2017. “Nzimbu Brown: The artist behind the banana craft”. Interviewing the Caribbean: Winter 2017.

  • Liverpool-Williams, Bronty. 2011. “Sports and physical education at GHS” in St. Vincent Girls’ High School, May 8, 19 11 – May 8, 2011 magazine. 2011

 
Dr. Imani Tafari-Ama

Dr. Tafari-Ama, Gender and Development specialist, Curator and Author and is currently Research Fellow at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Regional Coordinating Office, having just completed a year as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.

Academic Interests

  • Curatorial Studies

  • Development Studies

  • Gender and Development

  • Violence and Citizen Security

  • Child and Youth Development

  • Pan-African Identity Politics

Books           

  • Up for Air: This Half Has Never Been Told! (novel), Multi-Media Communications/Arawak Publishers Kingston, 2016

  • Lead in the Veins, (poetry), Beaten Track Publishing, 2017, https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/?n1=authors&id=96

  • Blood Bullets and Bodies: Sexual Politics Below Jamaica’s Poverty Line, Multimedia Communications, Kingston, 2006
Dr. Natasha Kay Mortley

Dr. Natasha Kay Mortley is a Lecturer and Research Methodologist at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Regional Coordinating Office.  She holds a BSc in Sociology, MPhil in Sociology of Development and PhD in Migration and Development.  In 2006 she was the recipient of the Commonwealth Split Site Award, and in 2010 the GDN Award for research on Migration and Development.

Academic interests

  • Migration and diaspora issues
  • Women’s love power migration
  • Caribbean Diaspora and medical tourism
  • Gender and leadership
  • Gender and climate change/disaster risk  management

Books

  • St. Lucian Women on the Move: The Impacts of Gender Relations on Migration Decisions.  November 2009. VDM Verlag Publishing House Ltd.

 

Chapters in Books

  • Sports, development and the impact of the Gibson Relays in The Gibson relays: History and impact on Jamaica’s sports, culture and social development by Verene Shepherd. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers. 2017, pp 135-153.
Dr. Dalea Bean

Dr Dalea Bean is a Lecturer and Graduate Coordinator at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Regional Coordinating Office at the University of the West Indies. Before working with the IGDS, she taught in the Department of History at UWI in the areas of women's history and Caribbean history. She pursued a Bachelor of Arts at UWI in African and Caribbean History and Political Science and graduated with a first class honours in 2002. She then completed her PhD in History on the topic "Jamaican Women and World Wars I and II".

Academic interests

  • Women’s involvement in the World Wars

  • Gender and conflict Situations

  • Caribbean History

  • Caribbean Masculinities

  • Gender relations in the hotel and tourism industry

Books

  • Jamaican Women and the World Wars: On the Front Lines of Change (Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2017

 

Chapters in Books

  • “Bodies in Conflict: Policing Sexual Liaisons in Jamaica during World War II” World War II and the Caribbean. Debbie Eccles and Karen McCollin eds.