Executive Council 2025 – 2027

Donna P. Hope

Donna P. Hope, PhD is tenured Professor of Culture, Gender and Society in the Institute of Caribbean Studies, and former Deputy Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. A specialist in the areas of popular culture, identity, masculinities, and media, Professor Hope’s work tackles Jamaican/Caribbean cultures of identity-making as they intersect with power domains.

She has made numerous presentations locally, regionally, and across the world, and published extensively in the areas of popular culture, gender, music, identity, and creative industries. Professor Hope believes in the importance of documenting culture and has published six academic books, one self-published motivational book, and many articles in journals and newspapers. Her most recent publication titled Dancehall Queen: Erotic Subversion/Subversion Erotica (edited with Carla Lamoyi) was published in August 2023. A bilingual work written simultaneously in English and Spanish, this book historicizes the Dancehall Queen phenomenon in its engagement with music, dance and fashion, and assesses the movement of this female-focussed cultural force outwards both regionally and globally.

Professor Hope is a former Director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, where she organized and chaired four International Reggae Conferences. A keen cultural activist with a deep interest in black, working class culture, and a researcher with a strong ethnographic focus,
Professor Hope is the founder of The Dancehall Archive and Research Initiative (www.dancehallarchive.org) which preserves, innovates and disseminates information about dancehall culture, while working with Dancehall actors and researchers locally, regionally and internationally. Dancehall Queen is the Dancehall Archive’s first book publication done jointly with FIEBRE Ediciones (Mexico).

A renowned keynote speaker, social commentator, former talk show host, and itinerant newspaper columnist, Professor Hope is finalizing her poetry monograph, These Thorns Have Roses, for publication. She is also completing the final draft her manuscript on the spread of
dancehall’s dance industry under the title Dancehall’s Scattered Children; as well as her work on the transitions in Afro-Caribbean gender structures tentatively titled Transitory Masculinities. Professor Hope holds a B.A. in Mass Communication *Hons), and Masters of Philosophy
(Political Science) from the University of the West Indies, Mona; and, as a Fulbright scholar to the USA, she completed a PhD in Cultural Studies from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Patricia Saunders

PATRICIA J. SAUNDERS, PhD is Professor of English and Hemispheric Caribbean Studies and Director of Graduate Studies in English at the University of Miami, Coral Gables.  She obtained her BSc. from the University of Maryland in Agricultural Science (1990), and her MA (1993) and PhD in English and Cultural Studies (1999) from the University of Pittsburgh. She has been the Senior Co-Editor of Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal since the journal was founded by Sandra Pouchet Paquet in 2003.  Prof. Saunders is also the author of Alien-Nation and Repatriation: Translating Identity in Anglophone Caribbean Literature (Lexington, 2007), and co-editor of Music. Memory. Resistance: Calypso and the Caribbean Literary Imagination (Ian Randle Press, 2007).

Her second book, Buyers Beware: Epistemologies of Consumption in Caribbean Popular Culture was published in the Critical Caribbean Studies Series with Rutgers University Press in 2022. This critical study examines a range of contemporary Caribbean popular cultural modes of expression to argue that the bonds between consumption and citizenship in the region are stronger now more than ever despite higher rates of unemployment and socioeconomic inequity. Her work has also appeared in numerous academic journals including: Small Axe, Transforming Anthropology, The Journal of West Indian Literature, Plantation Society in the Americas, Anthurium, and Feminist Studies. 

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Rhoda Arrindell

Rhoda Arrindell was born in Curacao and raised in St. Martin, a Caribbean territory colonized by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of France. She holds a BA in linguistics from Syracuse University (NY), a pre-law diploma (propaedeuse) from the University of the Netherlands Antilles (Curacao), an MAEd in administration from the University of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas), and a PhD in English linguistics, with a specialization in Caribbean languages, from the University of Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras). From 2010 – 2012, she served as St. Martin’s first Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs in the UP/DP coalition government. Since leaving office, she has served as an independent education consultant while teaching in higher education. She published her “groundbreaking” book, Language, Culture, and Identity in St. Martin, in 2014 and has just completed the manuscript for her second book, How to Get a World-Class Education: From St. Martin. She currently teaches Introduction to Caribbean Literature and Women in Literature at Howard University and serves as the President of the Caribbean Studies Association. She is also founder and president of the One St. Martin (SXM) Association and has committed her life to pursuing reparatory justice for the people of St. Martin, the Caribbean, and the Diaspora.

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Oneil Hall

Oneil Hall, a dedicated scholar in Caribbean studies, has made significant contributions to the fields of history. A committed member of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) since 2011, Hall has demonstrated his dedication to the association and the broader academic community through his service on various committees. Notably, he served as a member of the Program Chair Committee in 2023 and 2024 and co-chaired the Travel Grants Committee during the same years.

Hall’s academic journey began at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, where he earned both his PhD and BA in History. His pursuit of educational excellence continued with a Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching from Mico University College. As a UWI Scholar and recipient of the UWI Post Graduate Scholarship, Hall exemplified a deep commitment to his studies and academic growth.

Currently, Hall serves as an adjunct lecturer in the Institute of Caribbean Studies and the History and Archaeology Department at the UWI, Mona Campus. Previously, he served as a temporary full-time lecturer in the Institute of Caribbean Studies, where he acted as coordinator of the university-wide foundation course Caribbean Civilization and Project 4.0. Additionally, he teaches History and Caribbean Studies at St. Andrew High School for Girls, where he imparts his extensive knowledge and passion for the subject to younger generations.

Hall’s involvement with academic associations is extensive and impactful. His long-standing membership in the CSA since 2011, coupled with his recent supportive roles, underscores his dedication to fostering academic collaboration and support within the Caribbean studies community. His work as Co-Chair of the Travel Grants Committee in 2023 and 2024 highlights his commitment to facilitating opportunities for researchers to share their work and engage with peers across the region.

In 2015, Hall co-founded CO Research Consultancy, a research-based enterprise offering archival research services to scholars, lecturers, government agencies, and businesses. His expertise has been instrumental in numerous projects.

Hall’s dedication to historical research is evident in his numerous scholarly publications. He has authored chapters in books such as “The Cayman Islands: History, Politics, and Society Essays in Honour of J. A. Roy Bodden” and has published articles like “Africans and Pedro St. James” in the Journal of the University College of the Cayman Islands. His insightful book reviews have appeared in journals such as the Journal of Sport History, Caribbean Quarterly, and Jamaica Journal, further contributing to academic discourse.

Recognized for his contributions, Hall has received several distinctions and awards, including the Jamaica Gleaner’s Silver Pen Award for the best letter to the editor in February 2015. These accolades reflect his exceptional dedication to Caribbean studies and his role as a leading academic in the field.

Hall’s scholarly impact extends beyond publications and awards. He has presented at numerous conferences and seminars on diverse topics such as national identity formation in Grenada and Jamaica, the experiences of Jamaican female domestic workers in the Cayman Islands, and the complex historical relations between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica. His active participation in these events underscores his commitment to advancing knowledge and providing valuable insights into Caribbean history.

Hall’s dissertation, “The Relationship between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, 1862-2005,” is a testament to his comprehensive understanding of Caribbean history. This work, along with his ongoing research on the experiences of Jamaican migrant women in the Cayman Islands, explores the intricate connections between these territories and highlights the challenges faced by Caribbean women.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Hall engages in public service, contributing to the Homelessness Committee of the St. Catherine Municipal Corporation in Jamaica since March 2017. His participation in radio programs discussing critical Caribbean issues further demonstrates his commitment to community engagement and public discourse.

Hall’s multifaceted contributions to Caribbean studies, his outstanding academic achievements, and his dedication to public service and education underscore his pivotal role in advancing knowledge and historical understanding in the Caribbean region and beyond. His work continues to shape the academic landscape and enrich the broader understanding of Caribbean history.

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Maggie Shrimpton Masson

I was born in the UK and have lived my adult life in Southeast Mexico (since 1989). I am a full tenured Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, México. I received a PhD from the Universidad de La Habana, Cuba, and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, UK. I teach Latin American and Caribbean literatures (in Spanish and sometimes in English) at the Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán). Since 2017 I coordinate a student support system for international students at the Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas, focused on fomenting interculturality. My research centres on cultural identities and literature in the Mainland Caribbean. I have published articles and book chapters on Yucatan and Belize and my recent work is on Guyanese writers. I am a longstanding CSA member and have collaborated as Programme Chair (2013) and Local Organizing Committee Chair (2014), as well as volunteering on Literary Salon Committee, Gordon K and Sybil Lewis Book Award, the Travel grant and Translingual and Translation Committee.

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Angelique V. Nixon

Dr. Angelique V. Nixon is a Black Queer writer, artist, scholar, and activist. Born and raised in the Bahamas, she has been living and working in Trinidad and Tobago for over a decade. She is a social justice educator and community worker with over 20 years of experience and leadership in community-based organisations and academic institutions. Her research and creative works are available widely; she is author of two books – the poetry and art chapbook titled Saltwater Healing and the scholarly award-winning book titled Resisting Paradise: Tourism, Diaspora, and Sexuality in Caribbean Culture. Angelique is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Her research and teaching areas include Caribbean and postcolonial studies, African diaspora literatures, gender and sexuality studies, Caribbean and Black feminisms, tourism and diaspora studies, and transnational migrations. She earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida in 2008, where she specialised in postcolonial and gender studies. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Africana Studies at New York University in 2009 and has held academic posts at University of Connecticut (2009-2011) and SusquehannaUniversity (2011-2014). She joined The UWI IGDS in 2014 as a Fulbright scholar and in 2015 as a lecturer, where she is now a tenured senior faculty member and coordinator of graduate studies. Her current research investigates race, sexuality, migration, and climate crisis at the crossroads of Caribbean freedom, social movements, and decolonial poetics.

For over 20 years, Angelique has been worked in social justice movements and organised through civil society and community organisations regionally and internationally. Angelique is active in Caribbean movements for social and climate justice and has developed several community-based projects to facilitate social change, notably the healing collective Ayiti Resurrect, which organised programmes in Leogane, Haiti (2010-2017) through annual delegations focused on arts, environmental sustainability, and women’s empowerment. Since 2009, Angelique has been co-director of the Caribbean IRN (digital resource network on diverse genders and sexualities), which published two multi-media collections and organised digital archives/spaces to support Caribbean LGBTQI+ visibility and knowledge. Further since 2016, she has served as a working director of the feminist LGBTQI civil society (non-profit) organisation CAISO: Sex and Gender Justice in Trinidad and Tobago, where she is chair of the Board and spearheads resource mobilisation, community engagement, and operations, with oversight of various projects and programmes. Angelique is fiercely committed to intersectional queer feminist praxis, decolonial politics, environmental justice, and Black liberation striving to disrupt silences, challenge oppressive systems, and create spaces for resistance and empowerment.

Janelle Rodriques

Janelle Rodriques, PhD is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Washington, Seattle. She specialises in anglocreole Caribbean literature of the long twentieth century, particularly expressions of spirituality/religion, and what she sees as the literature’s ‘quarrel with humanity’ – dissatisfaction with Caribbean people’s various exclusions from the category of ‘human.’  She is the author of Narratives of Obeah in West Indian Literature: Moving through the Margins (Routledge, 2019) and has contributed to the Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Studies (2025) and Cambridge University Press’ Caribbean Literature in Transition, Vol. 1: 1800s-1920s (2021). She is also published in Cultural Dynamics, Caribbean Quarterly and the Journal of West Indian Literature. 

Dr Rodriques has served as vice chair of the Society for Caribbean Studies (UK) and has been a member of that scholarly community for over a decade. She is currently working on a collaborative piece, ‘Caribbean Inheritances and Informal Archive Making: Intergenerational Intimacy as Method,’ as well as her second monograph, Waiting, Watching, Warning: Caribbean Literature’s Quarrel with Humanity.

Semone Armorgan

Semone Armorgan is an independent Social and Economic Researcher. Throughout her career, she continuously strives to positively contribute to business results, utilizing tools such as effective organisation and prioritisation when achieving key organisational projects.

A student at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, at the undergraduate level, her foundations in Economics nurtured her interest in the areas of Social Economics, Urban Economics and Econometrics. Her fondness for data and its relation to societal outcomes were applied through the accounting activities of small businesses as well as developing infrastructural monitoring and evaluation techniques at a nationally during the formative stages of her career.

As a graduate student pursuing an MSc. Development Statistics, her specialization in survey design and analysis has enhanced her critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Her resilience and results orientation abilities serve to support her research interests and continued efforts in aspects of Sustainable Development for Trinidad & Tobago, and the Caribbean.

To date, some of her contributions include, research attributed to the development of Trinidad and Tobago’s Comprehensive Wealth Index, more specifically the Natural Capital Index. In addition, she has processed and analysed data, reporting on Migration and Climate Displacement for Trinidad and Tobago. She was also a recent Queen Elizabeth Scholar (2024) at Mc Gill University and is a current affiliate of the McGill Geography Laboratory, where she continues to pursue research on Energy Poverty within the Caribbean region.

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Rashana Vikara Lydner

Rashana Vikara Lydner, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Bridging the fields of Caribbean studies, French cultural studies, linguistic anthropology, and Creolistics her research focuses on a transnational approach to the study of Black popular culture in the francophone and anglophone Caribbean at the intersections of language, identity, and power.

Her published works include “Decolonizing Creolistics Through Popular Culture” in Decolonizing Linguistics (Oxford University Press), “S’habiller Sexy en Body String: The French Guianese bad gyal and the image of French Caribbean Women” in Small Axe: a Caribbean journal of criticism, and “‘Mwen Enmé’W’ [I Love You]: Black Queer Women’s Social Positioning in the French Caribbean” in Gender & Language. Dr. Lydner is currently working on her first book manuscript Dancehall ka joué: Gender and Sexual Politics at Play in French Guiana. Dancehall ka joué asserts that dancehall artists in French Guiana employ subversive performances of their gender and sexual identities to contest French Caribbean societal norms. In addition, by identifying with a trans-Caribbean culture, they challenge notions of non-belonging and Frenchness as they carve out their own space in the French nation state.

Dr. Lydner has a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies, with a designated emphasis in African Diaspora Studies, from the University of California, Davis; a M.A. in French from the University of California, Davis, and a B.A. in French and Spanish, Summa Cum Laude, with a minor in Psychology, from the State University of New York, Brockport

Tanya Francis

Tanya Francis, B.A., M.Sc. is a seasoned administrative professional with over 16 years of experience in administration and management across university and corporate settings. She has successfully coordinated and contributed to several conferences, showcasing her strong organizational and leadership skills.

Currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Cultural Studies, Tanya brings valuable expertise in cultural programming and activities. She has also shared her knowledge and insights as a presenter at numerous seminars and workshops, reflecting her commitment to professional development, research, and community engagement.

In addition, Tanya is actively involved in student development, volunteerism, and mentorship, where she continues to inspire and support the growth of others within and beyond the academic community.

Caroline M. Desvallons

Caroline M. Desvallons is the Chief Financial Officer and Principal Owner of DAS, Inc., a financial management and accounting solutions firm specializing in nonprofit operations, audit support, grant compliance, and strategic fiscal leadership. With more than two decades of experience guiding organizations through complex financial environments, Caroline brings deep expertise and strong analytical leadership to her role as Treasurer of the Caribbean Studies Association.

Caroline has served as a Controller and senior financial executive across multiple industries, where she implemented financial systems, strengthened internal controls, improved reporting accuracy, and managed multi-million-dollar budgets. Her work consistently delivers measurable improvements in cash flow, operational efficiency, and audit readiness. Colleagues and executives have praised her reliability, professionalism, strategic insight, and ability to streamline accounting processes while maintaining transparency and accountability.

In her role with CSA, Caroline oversees financial governance, reporting, compliance, and fiscal planning, with a focus on building sustainable financial structures that support the Association’s mission.

Caroline holds a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Florida International University and an MBA from the University of Maryland. She is passionate about strengthening mission-driven organizations through sound financial management and forward-looking fiscal strategy.