Newsletter Editorial Team

Editor: Meagan Sylvester – Senior Lecturer, Music Sociologist, Author, Researcher

Meagan Sylvester is a published author from the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a UWI, St. Augustine graduate who specialises in the Sociology of Music and she is a Caribbean scholar whose doctoral research focused on Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music. Her continuing interrogation within the academy centers on Music, Gender, 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. Teaching and research interests are Caribbean Music Cultures and African Diaspora Popular Culture. In addition, she has hosted scholarly workshops on music and culture in Europe, Latin America, South America, the United States and the Caribbean.

She is currently a Visiting Professor, Sociology and Anthropology at Farmingdale State College at The State University of New York and an adjunct professor of Africana Studies at Queens College and English Composition at New York City College of Technology.

She holds professional memberships in international 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.

As a Labour Market specialist, she has worked as a Senior Lecturer with responsibility for the Research Methods and Sociology academic programmes at the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies in Trinidad and Tobago. Specialising in Labour Market Research, she has held positions on cabinet-appointed government sub-committees with responsibility for providing baseline survey data and monitoring and evaluation for national labour market sectors at The Ministry of Labour and Small Enterprise Development in Trinidad and Tobago.

Her many board appointments demonstrate her commitment to her public engagement portfolio: (i) Education and Research – She is a board member of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation – TUCO and holds the position as Director, Education and Research. (ii) Culture and Archiving – She holds a board position at the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Museum (iii) Communications and Information Technology – she is an Executive Board member of the Caribbean Studies Association – CSA. She holds two positions on the CSA Council, namely Chair, Newsletter Committee and Co-Chair of the Digital Media Network Committee.

Signaling her passion for volunteerism, she is a committee member for three organisations which focus on women a) the Powerful Ladies of Trinidad and Tobago (PLOTT), b) The Association of   Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago (AFETT) and c) Caribbean Women Honours and Empowerment.

Email: newseditor@caribbeanstudiesassociation.org

Julien Merion – French Sub-editor

Université des Antilles (Guadeloupe Campus)
Dr in political science
Attached to the CAGI Laboratory (Center for Geopolitical and International Analysis)
Studied Law and Political Science in Guadeloupe and Paris (La Sorbonne)

Specialties:

• Local power and civil society
• Caribbean regional cooperation and integration
• Political ideas
• Political behaviors

Written works:

• « La question statutaire en Guadeloupe, Guyane et Martinique » avec Claude Emery, Fred Reno et Jean-Pierre Sainton en 2000
• « Petit dictionnaire du débat politique en Guadeloupe, Guyane et Martinique » avec Fred Deshayes et Jean-Pierre Sainton en 2004
• L’émigration haïtienne dans la Caraïbe avec Auguste Joint en 2010
• Autopsie politique du massacre de Mai 1967 en 2017

Numerous articles in specialized journals and collective works

Président of cooperation association in Guadeloupe CO.RE.CA (Contacts et Recherche Caraïbe)

Gabriela Quijano – Spanish Sub-editor

Gabriela Quijano was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She is a PhD Candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In her research, Gabriela engages with disaster anthropology perspectives, political economy, and decolonial approaches to study economic practices taking place in the Caribbean. She works with emerging economies, alternative economic movements and experiences of economic self-management and entrepreneurship, moving away from capitalocentric representations of economic diversity. Her dissertation work focuses on economic recovery practices emerging in Puerto Rico’s current (post)disaster context. She is in conversation with human/non-human approaches to look at economic activity developing in Puerto Rico and determining recovery initiatives following the strike of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and the subsequent natural emergencies including the earthquakes experienced by the end of 2019 and early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic starting in March of 2020, and the passing of Hurricane Fiona in September of 2022. Other of her interests include topics of colonialism and coloniality, feminist movements, food studies, and post-humanist and animalist movements.

Chenzira Davis Kahina – Virgin Islander Sub-editor

Chenzira Davis Kahina is a cultural ethnographer, educator, artist, naturopathic therapist, and ordained priestess. She completed studies in English, Education, Communications, Educational Technology, and Natural Health Counseling at Rutgers University (B.A.), Pepperdine University (M.S.), University of California San Diego (PhD Fellow), and the Natural Health Institute (Ph.D.) respectively. Davis Kahina is an author of multiple essays, commentaries, and comprehensive multicultural projects inclusive of a poetry collection Listening to Ancestral Wisdom: Sacred Conch Shell Inspirations (2004). She’s the co-founder of Per Ankh (House of Life)—an NGO with UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status supporting Culture, Health, Arts, Technology and Education for Life, Inspiration, Freedom and Education (CHATS4LIFE©). In addition to her Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) membership, Davis Kahina serves several international organizations as interim executive council representative of the Caribbean Pan African Network (CPAN); artistic director of Per Ankh Bamboula Drummers and Dancers; board representative of God’s House International (GHI); executive council member of the Global Breadfruit Heritage Council (GBHC); and others. Chenzira Davis Kahina is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communications and the director of the Virgin Islands Caribbean Cultural Center (VICCC) within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI).

Maya I. Freeman – Graduate Student Representative

Maya I. Freeman the current CSA2023-2025 Graduate Student Representative is a researcher, health/wellness educator, creative artist, photojournalist, and mother. Freeman is a graduate student in the Goddard Graduate Institute of Goddard College.

Maya Freeman has remained committed to successfully completing her Ph.D. in Sociology. Freeman’s research and interdisciplinary studies in Caribbean/Indigenous Global History, Global/African Diasporan Studies, Global Social History, Hybrid Cultural Studies, and related areas inclusive of Intersectional Studies of the Caribbean and wider Americas.

Freeman completed her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology-Cum Laude at City University of New York-Hunter College. Freeman attended the University of the Virgin Islands- Orville Kean Campus in St. Thomas from 2014-2016 attending CUNY-Hunter College.

Freeman remains engaged in community service organizations, social media marketing, graphic design development, and creative arts consultant projects. Served as CSA2023 St. Croix Local Organizing Committee Representative and Virtual Administrative Program Coordinator for CSA2023 St. Croix Conference.

Alicia D. Nicholls – Your Commentary Contibutor

Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc. (Dist), LL.B. (Hons) is a multilingual, multidisciplined and legally-trained international trade specialist whose research interests include foreign investment law and policy, financing for sustainable development, investment migration programmes, as well as global financial regulatory issues.

Alicia is a frequent presenter on contemporary trade matters at academic and industry conferences and events and since 2011, is the founder of one of the Caribbean’s leading blogs on trade matters: www.caribbeantradelaw.com. She also contributes articles to a variety of international and regional publications including IFC Review, AfronomicsLaw Blog, the Barbados Business Authority, among others.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science (First Class Honours), a Master of Science in International Trade Policy (with distinction) and a Bachelor of Laws (Upper Second Class Honours) from The University of the West Indies. She also holds the FITT Diploma in International Trade from the prestigious Ottawa-based Forum for International Trade Training (FITT).

She is an Advisory Board member of the Caribbean-ASEAN Council, a member of the Network of Experts of the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce in Europe (CCCE), a member of the Academy of International Business (AIB) and the International Studies Association (ISA).

Kiah Akosua Asabea, Newsletter Design, Layout & Distribution