The University of the West Indies Press’ (The UWI Press’) mission is to be the premier scholarly book publisher in the Caribbean, to enhance and encourage research and publication of Caribbean scholarship, to promote the global reputation of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) by empowering the scholarly community it serves, and to disseminate Caribbean scholarship to the world within a cost-effective environment.

Founded in 1992, The UWI Press has over 500 books and journals in print and/or digital form in sixteen academic disciplines. It is particularly well known for its work in Caribbean history, Caribbean cultural studies, Caribbean literature, gender studies, education, and political science. Its books are peer-reviewed and approved by an editorial committee composed of local and international scholars.

In keeping with the vision, mission, and core values established by The UWI, The UWI Press has identified several initiatives to support Phase II of The UWI Triple A Strategic Plan, dubbed the Revenue Revolution. These initiatives are outlined below.

Access

The UWI Press remains committed to increasing access to its print and digital content in the global marketplace through its various digital and online channels and platforms. Learning materials delivered seamlessly and instantaneously and at lower price points enhance the teaching and learning experience as well as access across all audiences.

Alignment

The UWI Press is dedicated to aligning its resources and capabilities to meet the needs of its partners, stakeholders and the fast-paced environment. By extension, The UWI Press assists to maintain and reinforce the global presence of The UWI through its association and partnerships with international organisations.

Agility

Responsive to the dynamic needs of students and scholars, The UWI Press has harnessed the technological advances within the global publishing industry, resulting in a diversified revenue base and reduced inventory cost by rationalising access points across the world while making our books easily available in print or digitally.

Since the appointment of a new director, the organisational structure has been adapted to eliminate the need for line managers. A focused and centred approach is underway to streamline the administrative and financial direction of The UWI Press.

The UWI Press is a proud member of the Book Industry Association of Jamaica (BIAJ), the Association of University Presses (AUP), the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), and the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG).

THE UWI PRESS 30TH ANNIVERSARY CATALOGUE

How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty, Hilary McD. Beckles
Featured in The UWI Press 30th Anniversary Catalogue

THE UWI PRESS EXPANDS ACCESS OF ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS

Earlier in 2023, The UWI Press, the leader in scholarly and academic works on or about the Caribbean, announced the launch of its application (app) available in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. Aimed at deepening the reach of The UWI Press in the global marketplace, the app is the newest tool in the Press’ marketing toolkit.

“Various existential pressures, shrinking library and book buying budgets, increased demand for digital access, and COVID-19 have forced publishers worldwide to rethink marketing and selling strategies,” said Christine Randle, director, The UWI Press. “We’ve had to rethink how we engage with our existing and new stakeholders while at the same time growing the enterprise at minimal cost. We focus on maintaining quality books and journals of the highest academic integrity, supporting the output from The University of the West Indies, while keeping our strategic priorities in focus.”

App users can easily create an account and within minutes access the Press’ eBooks and audiobooks. As part of the broader platform, the app links the website and social media channels of the Press, helping to improve participant interface with it. Since the launch of the app, The UWI Press has seen an upward trajectory of sales in general.

BOOKS AND JOURNALS PUBLISHED

Representing Blackness: The Marcus Mosiah Garvey Multimedia Museum, Donna E. McFarlane, edited by A. Lynn Bolles

Contact Languages and Music, edited by Andrea Hollington, Joseph T. Farquharson and Byron M. Jones Jr.

Gods of Bruising, Dara Wilkinson Bobb

Academic Integrity in the Caribbean: Plagiarism Policies, Perception, Prevalence and Possible Solutions, Ruth Baker-Gardner

Each One Teach One: Parental Involvement and Family Engagement in Jamaica's Education System, edited by Saran Stewart, Sharline Cole and Yewande Lewis-Fokum

World War II Camps in Jamaica: Evacuees, Refugees, Internees, Prisoners of War, Suzanne Francis-Brown

Re-Visioning Change: Case Studies of Curriculum in School Systems in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Zellynne Jennings

The Journal of Caribbean History
Vol. 57, No. 1
Vol. 56, No. 2
Vol. 56, No. 1

Caribbean Quarterly
Vol. 69, No. 2
Vol. 69, No. 1
Vol. 68, No. 4
Vol. 68, No. 3

Caribbean Conjunctures, Vol. 1, Issue 1 & 2

Caribbean Journal of Psychology, Vol. 14, Issue 1

West Indian Law Journal, Vol. 41, No. 1 & 2

Journal of Law, Governance and Society, Vol. 5 & 6

Interviewing the Caribbean
Vol. 8, No. 1
Vol. 7, No. 2

AWARD WINNERS

The University of the West Indies Press
Caribbean Studies Association, Recognition Award for Contribute to Caribbean Studies, 2023

The Blackest Thing in Slavery Was Not the Black Man: The Last Testament of Eric Williams, edited by Brinsley Samaroo

• Co-winner, the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Book Award, Caribbean Studies Association, 2023
• Finalist, History: General, International Book Awards, American Book Fest, 2023

Re-Visioning Change: Case Studies of Curriculum in School Systems in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Zellynne Jennings

• Finalist, Education/Academic, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, 2023
• Finalist, Fiction: Short Story, International Book Awards, American Book Fest, 2023

Traditional and Western Medicine: Voices from Jamaican Psychiatric Patients, Caryl James Bateman
Finalist, Health: Alternative Medicine, International Book Awards, 2023

Shabine and Other Stories, Hazel Simmons-McDonald
Finalist, Fiction: Short Story, International Book Awards, American Book Fest, 2023

Jamaican Ceramics: A Historical and Contemporary Survey, Norma Rodney Harrack Finalist, Art, International Book Awards, American Book Fest, 2023

Alexander Bedward, The Prophet of August Town: Race, Religion and Colonialism, Dave St. Aubyn Gosse, Finalist, History: General, International Book Awards, American Book Fest, 2023

Education for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean: Pedagogy, Processes and Practices, Lorna Down and Therese Ferguson

• Award-Winning Finalist in the Education category, Association of American Publishers (AAP), 2023
• Finalist, Education/Academic International Book Awards, American Book Fest, 2023
• Finalist, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, Education (Non-fiction category), Foreword Indies, 2022
  

New Political Culture in the Caribbean, edited by Holger Henke and Fred Reno
Finalist, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, Political and Social Sciences (Non-fiction category), Foreword Indies, 2022

The Pen and the Pan: Food, Fiction and Homegrown Caribbean Feminism(s), Robyn Cope
Dr. Barbara T. Christian Award, Honourable Mention, 2023

BOOK REVIEWS

“George Padmore’s: Black Internationalism”, Rodney Worrell, The Journal of Caribbean History, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2023

“Lucille Mathurin Mair”, Verene Shepherd, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2023.2218753

“Caribbean Writers on Teaching Literature”, Lorna Down and Thelma Baker, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2023.2218754

“Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados: The Independence Period, 1966–1976”, Hilbourne A. Watson, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2023.2218755

“New Political Culture in the Caribbean”, edited by Holger Henke and Fred Reno, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2023.2218756

“The West Indian Presence and Heritage in Cuba”, edited by Paulette A. Ramsay, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2023.2218760

“The Blackest Thing in Slavery Was Not the Black Man: The Last Testament of Eric Williams”, edited by Brinsley Samaroo, Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 1, 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2023.2194220

“Gods of Bruising”, Dara Wilkinson Bobb, Big Drum Nation, 2023 https://www.bigdrumnation.com/2023/08/31/very-tentativ-pre-draft-reading-through-an-emancipatory-lense-emancipating-oneself-through-or-gods-of-brusing-challenging-mis-education-something-like-dat-for-the-book-is-at-a-deeper-l/
“King Yellowman: Meaningful Bodies in Jamaican Dancehall Culture”, Brent Hagerman
https://www.johnmasouri.com/single-post/echoes-march-2023
Echoes Magazine (March 2023)

“Caribbean Trade, Integration and Development: Selected Papers and Speeches of Alister McIntyre. Volume 1: Trade and Integration. Volume 2: Aspects of Human Resources Development and Higher Education”, edited by Andrew S. Downes, Compton Bourne, M. Arnold McIntyre, and Rosalie O’Meally, Social and Economic Studies 71: 1&2 (2022): 166–170
https://www.mona.uwi.edu/ses/node/230

CARIBBEAN QUARTERLY HIGHLIGHT

The June 2023 issue of Caribbean Quarterly (CQ) is a special festschrift in honour of Professor Merle Collins on the occasion of her retirement from the University of Maryland, College Park, after twenty-five years of exemplary service. This special issue commemorates Professor Collins’s breadth and depth of impact as a luminary of Caribbean culture, demonstrated not only in her scholarly pursuits as researcher, teacher, supervisor, and mentor, but also in her other roles as prose fiction author, poet, theatre and music performer, biographer, archivist, and activist.

Guest edited by scholars who Professor Collins mentored during their postgraduate studies, Tanya L. Shields and Isis Semaj-Hall, the issue includes an introduction-tribute by Shields, co- and single-authored feature articles by Alison Donnell, Antonia MacDonald, and Shalini Puri, April Shemak and Chenelle J. Heard, Gia Harewood, Belinda Deneen Wallace and Laurie R. Lambert – all centred around Collins’s oeuvre and practice as a custodian of Caribbean culture – a personal essay by Francis Urias Peters, an interview with Professor Collins by Hall-Semaj, and an afterword by Professor Collins herself.

“New Approaches to Cannabis Culture” is the theme of the forthcoming special issue of CQ (September–December 2023), guest edited by Jahlani A. Niaah. The double issue in volume 69 of UWI’s flagship journal, “New Approaches to Cannabis Culture” is a long time coming in light of ganja reform across the region which began with decriminalisation of the herb in Jamaica in 2015. Since then, other Caribbean countries have followed suit but as the contributions to this special issue highlight, important questions remain unanswered, there are wrongs that have not been righted, and the potential of a thriving, multinational Caribbean cannabis industry stands to lose momentum if these concerns are not addressed efficiently and carefully by governments and stakeholders. “New Approaches to Cannabis Culture”, as a double issue, has no shortage of feature articles authored by legal experts (Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Marcus Goffe, and Annette Henry), ethnographers (Jake Homiak and the late Carole D. Yawney), entrepreneurs (André Gordon and Douglas K. Gordon), a psychologist (Christopher A. D. Charles), a ganja activist (Junior “Spirit” Cottle), and a culture scholar (Jahlani A. Niaah). The double issue also includes a personal essay by Peta-Anne Baker and poems by Moqapi Selassie and Miguel “Steppa” Williams.