Vibes, Vibrations, and Power: Caribbean Culture, Identity, and Development (Working Title)

Editors: Donna P. Hope, Professor of Culture, Gender & Society, UWI
Carolyn Cooper, Professor Emerita, UWI
Alpha Obika, Lecturer, UWI

Overview
This edited volume emerges from the intellectual engagements of the 50th annual conference of the Caribbean Studies Association, held in Kingston, Jamaica, in June 2026. While inspired by the conference theme, this is not a set of proceedings, but a curated scholarly intervention that brings together original, theoretically grounded, and empirically rich work on the contemporary Caribbean.

At a moment marked by profound global shifts—economic, political, technological, and ecological—the Caribbean continues to generate powerful cultural forms, critical identities, and alternative visions of development. This volume takes seriously the region’s “vibes and vibrations” not as metaphor alone, but as analytic entry points into questions of power, meaning-making, and transformation.

We seek contributions that examine how Caribbean cultural practices, social identities, and developmental paradigms are being shaped, contested, and rearticulated in these transformative times.

Scope and Focus
We invite submissions that engage critically with Caribbean realities across local, regional, and diasporic contexts. Contributors are encouraged to move beyond description toward conceptual, theoretical, and methodological innovation.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

Cultural production and popular culture (including reggae, dancehall, film, digital cultures, performance)
Power, identity, and representation in Caribbean societies
Diaspora, migration, and transnational belonging
Tourism, sustainability, and development paradigms
Gender, sexuality, and embodiment
Race, class, and postcolonial formations of power
Climate change, environmental justice, and resilience
Creative industries and the political economy of culture
Language, memory, archives, and heritage
Caribbean futures, imaginaries, and speculative approaches

We particularly welcome work that engages the Caribbean as a site of theory, not only as a site of application.

Submission Guidelines

Abstract length: 250–300 words
Include:
o Title of chapter
o Author name(s) and institutional affiliation(s)
o 4–6 keywords
Submission deadline: June 12, 2026 – donna.hope@uwi.edu or alpha.obika@uwi.edu
Notification of acceptance: June 26, 2026
Chapter Submission: August 15, 2026

Selected contributors will be invited to submit full chapters of 6,000–8,000 words, which will undergo peer review.

Important Notes

Submissions should ideally be based on papers presented at the 2026 CSA conference; however, exceptional papers aligned with the theme will also be considered.
This volume is independently edited and is not an official publication of the Caribbean Studies Association.
We encourage submissions from scholars based in the Caribbean, the Caribbean diaspora, and from other regions, including early-career researchers.

Submission Process
Please submit abstracts to: donna.hope@uwi.edu and alpha.obika@uwi.edu