Scotland becomes first Patrick Emmanuel Scholar

by George Alleyne

St Vincent and the Grenadines national Saskia Scotland has become the first person to earn the Patrick Emmanuel Scholarship, which she will use to study land use, occupation and ownership in Barbados.{{more}}

Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) Dr Don Marshall said this is a new scholarship in honour of Grenadian Dr Patrick Emmanuel, which goes to persons of the Eastern Caribbean.

Announcing the scholarship last week, Dr Marshall said, “Ideally, we are targeting a good researcher, already one or two years into their research degree. So, for persons doing the Master’s in Philosophy degree, or the Doctor in Philosophy degree in any subfield of political science.

“The research must itself address any subject field within the discipline, and it must cover the Eastern Caribbean, including Barbados.”

He said Saskia Scotland, a senior public servant within the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, works in the Ministry of Housing and Lands, and is a recipient of a First Class Honours degree in history and languages from UWI, Cave Hill.

Dr Marshall said Scotland had applied to do a Master’s in Philosophy degree, and “Only last year her research work was upgraded to that of a Phd, so she is making good progress in what now would be her third year of study, reviewing questions of land use, entitlement and citizenship.

“She is looking at land, family land and citizenship.

“In essence she is looking at land reform, not only in St Vincent, she is looking at land use in the Grenadines, what’s happening to people in the Grenadines relative to the interests of persons with deep pockets overseas who wish to buy that land.

“So, there are all kinds of exciting issues that she is dealing with.”

He said that scholarship is for full-time study, “meaning that you have to be full-time here at [SALISES’ base] Cave Hill Campus, and there is a residential component… the person will be considered a research assistant within SALISES.”

Patrick Emmanuel, who passed away in 1996 at 53, was a Caribbean scholar who focused on Affairs of the Eastern Caribbean. He was editor of the bulletin of Eastern Caribbean Affairs, a Foreign Policy advisor and ambassador of the Government of Grenada, and a research fellow at what is now named SALISES.

His publications included books, monographs and articles on political, economic and social issues confronting the Caribbean, including democracy and governance, electoral politics, and Caribbean integration.

“Patrick Emmanuel left a body of work on a range of issues, and the attempt here is to encourage fulltime students to pursuit of a research degree in political science, or any associated field. … it could be any sub-field of political science,” said Dr Marshall. “One scholarship will be awarded annually, and Saskia Scotland began her 10-month term, that has an option of an additional semester, if so needed.

“The research must itself address any subject field within the discipline, and it must cover the Eastern Caribbean, including Barbados.”

Key areas of study are regional integration, the roles of the state, governance and democracy, elections and voting patterns, electoral reform, public administration, urban and rural reform, women and politics in the public sphere, and Caribbean political thought, with special emphasis on Patrick Emmanuel’s contribution.

Dr Marshall chose the occasion of the 10th Patrick Emmanuel Memorial Lecture in the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex, UWI, Cave Hill, last Thursday, to make the announcement.

The lecture was delivered by pro vice-chancellor and Cave Hill principal, Eudine Barriteau, who had, prior to the scholarship announcement, criticized what she saw as an apparent neglect of the writings of Emmanuel, a scholar she described as a defender of the relevance and complexity of the small states of the Eastern Caribbean.

“His intellectual contributions should be included and dissected in what we term Caribbean political thought,” she said.

“I am not advocating an endorsement or even acceptance of Emmanuel’s work. I would not insult his memory and scholarship with a crass position like that,” Barriteau said, and continued, “Instead, I am stating intellectual workers have a responsibility to engage, to critique in whatever style with which they are comfortable.

“Academic integrity demands that we hold scholarship up to scrutiny, to evaluate the ideas and knowledge claims presented and determine whether the arising generalizations make sense of the constantly changing social, economic and political phenomena, or whether these ideas should be discarded. So, tonight, I call attention to what I view as the inexplicable silences around a body of scholarship that offered much to illuminate conditions of political and social life in the Caribbean.”