12th annual FIU Eric Williams Lecture focuses on Haiti Reconstruction

The 12th Annual Eric E. Williams Memorial Lecture at FIU will take place Friday, October 15, at 6:30 p.m., as part of FIU’s African & African Diaspora Studies Program. Due to the catastrophic devastation wrought by the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, this year’s Distinguished Africana Scholars Lecture, “The Renaissance of Haiti: A Template for Caribbean Integration,” promises to address critical issues pertaining to Haiti’s rebirth and the special responsibility of metropolitan countries to ensure it.

Former Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Special Representative on Haiti’s Reconstruction and authorized by its government to represent it in appropriate fora, will be the featured speaker at the College of Law, Room RDB 1100, Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

Head of government from 1992-2006, Patterson is Jamaica’s longest serving prime minister. He has played a leading role in the United Nations, the Commonwealth, and the Non-Aligned Movement and has contributed to numerous Conventions and official Statements. He was instrumental in expanding the original Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) into CARICOM, and presided over the latter’s inclusion of Haiti.  In 2005 and 2006, respectively, he steered CARICOM toward the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice and a Single Market Economy.

Established in 1999, the lecture honors the distinguished Caribbean statesman Eric E. Williams, first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago and head of government for a quarter of a century until his death in 1981. He led the country to independence from Britain in 1962 and onto republicanism in 1976. A consummate academic and historian, and author of several books, Williams is best known for his groundbreaking work, the 66-year-old Capitalism and Slavery, which has been translated into seven languages, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese and soon-to-be, Korean. Urdu and Hindi editions are also planned. Popularly referred to as The Williams Thesis, this landmark text continues to inform today’s ongoing debate and remains “years ahead of its time…this profound critique is still the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development,” according to the New York Times.

The lecture, which seeks to provide an intellectual forum for the examination of pertinent issues in Caribbean and African Diaspora history and politics, is co-sponsored by:  the Caribbean Consular Corps (Miami); Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs; FIU: College of Arts and Sciences, School of International and Public Affairs, College of Law, AADS Graduate Students Association, Caribbean Students Association, Council of Student Organizations, Haitian Students Organization, Latin American and Caribbean Center, National Society of Black Engineers, Ruth K. and Shepard Broad International Lecture Series, Student Programming Council; Angostura, Ltd.; Air Jamaica/Caribbean Airlines, Ltd.; Miami Dade College – Professor Leroy Lashley; Mike Simmons of Mike Golf, Inc.; Emile Sabga; Aryian and Gieowar Singh; Professor Linda Spears-Bunton; Victoria Mutual Florida Representative Office.

The lecture is also supported by The Eric Williams Memorial Collection at the University of the West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago campus), which was inaugurated by former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell in 1998.  It was named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register in 1999.

Books by and about Williams and Patterson will be available for purchase and signing at the lecture.

For more information, please contact 305-348-6860/271-7246 or africana@fiu.edu.