A critical source for Caribbean scholarship and research, the University of the West Indies Press aims to enhance, encourage, and disseminate Caribbean works and authors and to promote the reputation of the University of the West Indies, the press says, “by empowering the scholarly community it serves and ensuring that the university and its scholars stand at the forefront of global conversations.” Led by director Christine Randle, UWI Press was established in 1992 and is a not-for-profit scholarly publisher of books and journals in 16 academic disciplines. The press concentrates on Caribbean history, Caribbean cultural studies, Caribbean literature, gender studies, education, and political science.
The Caribbean Biography Series, which celebrates and memorializes the architects of Caribbean culture and identity through literature, the arts, politics, sports, and business, is to date one of the press’s most successful categories, covering figures such as Marcus Garvey, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, and Aimé Césaire. The books appeal to a wide constituency of readers, beyond the scholarly and academic market, making them some of the press’s most popular releases.
Other notable UWI Press books to date include Rihanna: Barbados World-Gurl in Global Popular Culture edited by Hilary McD. Beckles and Heather D. Russell; How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Power by Hilary McD. Beckles; Dancehall: A Reader on Jamaican Culture and Music edited by Sonjah Stanley Niaah; The Haunted Tropics: Caribbean Ghost Stories edited by Martin Munro; Confronting Power, Theorizing Gender edited by V. Eudine Barriteau; and Education for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean by Lorna Down and Therese Ferguson. Among the books published by the press that speak to this year’s UP Week theme of #StepUP is Sun Lust to Sun Plus: Niche Tourism in the Caribbean edited by Acolla Lewis-Cameron and Leslie-Ann Jordan, a volume focused on sustainable Caribbean tourism that offers, the press says, “a comprehensive overview of niche tourism development strategies that are restructuring the paradisiacal destinations of the Caribbean.”
Upcoming books of note from the press include Re-Ordering Caribbean Futures in the Fires of Global Change edited by Patricia Northover, Hamid A. Ghany, and Natalie Dietrich Jones and The Catastrophe of Disaster Aid: Post 2010 Earthquake Haiti, NGOs and New Vulnerabilities by Jean Max Charles. To broaden the reach of their titles, the University of the West Indies Press has launched the UWI Press app, now available in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. This move, the press says, will help cement its legacy as the publisher of choice for rich and vibrant Caribbean scholarly content, with the aim of ensuring its books and journals are accessible in dynamic forms to readers throughout the global marketplace.
