UWI to hold symposium on Carnival

The event, hosted by the Cultural Studies Section of the Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies (UWI), St Augustine in collaboration with the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, examines the myriad ways that the Carnival shapes, and is shaped by its environment.

According to Dr Suzanne Burke, one of the organisers of the symposium, the objective is to “bring together the various Carnival stakeholders including practitioners, policymakers, researchers and entrepreneurs to examine and discuss the importance of Carnival to Trinidad and Tobago’s development,” a media release stated.

It will also serve as a vehicle to enhance the “voice” of TT ’s academic community in global discourses on the Trinidad Carnival.

The symposium opens with a keynote lecture and discussion on March 2 at the Auditorium of the Government Campus Plaza on Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain. The event, which is scheduled to begin at 6 pm, will feature Dr Keith Nurse who will speak on “Bacchanlia and the Political Economy of Governance in the TT Carnival.” Nurse is Senior Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies and the World Trade Organization Chair at The University of the West Indies. He has published and served as a consultant on a broad range of topics including: trade policy, aid for trade, diasporas, creative economy, tourism, innovation governance, global value chains and climate change, the release said.

The all-day symposium on March 3 will take place on Daaga Hall Auditorium at UWI, St Augustine.

Panel discussions will embrace topics such as Carnival, politics and identity; gender performativity and sexuality in carnival; pedagogical approaches to Carnival arts performance and Carnival and memory.

For more info on registration: carnivalconferencecssuwi@ gmail.com or visit our facebook page