Digital Media Network

Meagan Sylvester, Co-Chair

Meagan Sylvester is a published author of over fifteen book chapters and journal articles and is a well known public academic in her native Trinidad and Tobago where she uses both traditional (television, print and radio) and social media platforms to engage discussions on the Calypso and Soca musical artforms.  Her research topics of interest are Music and National Identity in Calypso and Soca, Music of Diasporic Carnivals, Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music, Steelpan and kaisoJazz musical identities, Gender and Identity in Calypso and Soca music and Music and Human Rights in the Americas. In pursuit of fulfilling her academic goals, she has presented academic papers and hosted scholarly workshops in several spaces across the globe including Europe, Latin America, South America, the United States and numerous islands in the Caribbean.

She has recently completed a Ph.D. in the Sociology of Music at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago and holds memberships in international professional organizations which include the Society for Ethnomusicology, the International Association of the Study for Popular Music, Caribbean Studies Association and the Association of Black Sociologists.

Locally, she is a board member of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation – TUCO and is the Chair of the Education and Research Committee. Regionally, she is an Executive board member of the Caribbean Studies Association – CSA. She holds two positions on the CSA board, namely Chair, Newsletter Committee and Co-Chair of the Digital Media Network Committee.

As part of her professional development portfolio, she is a Music Sociologist with a consultancy practice in which she provides her clients with insight into the sociological framing of Trinbagonian society using the lens of Calypso and Soca as the main units of analysis.

E-mail: newseditor@caribbeanstudiesassociation.org

Kiah Akosua Asabea, Co-Chair