Vincentian appointed Director of UWI Institute for Gender

Vincentian, Dr. Halimah DeShong, has been appointed as the new Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at The University of the West Indies (The UWI).

In a Wednesday November 13, 2024 post on the website www.uwitv.global, The UWI said Dr. DeShong began her duties in September and is expected to serve a two-year term.

“She is an accomplished feminist researcher and Senior Lecturer, having previously served as Head of the IGDS’s Nita Barrow Unit at the Cave Hill Campus,” the www.uwitv.global said, while noting that Dr. DeShong’s research focuses on sexual and gender violence, feminist methodologies, anti-colonial feminisms, qualitative interviewing, and text and talk analysis.

Dr. DeShong has done several publications, among them her co-edited books- Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 1: The State, Economy and Health; Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean and Volume 2: Society, Education and Human Behaviour; and Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender and Sexuality.

“Dr. DeShong is committed to addressing enduring inequalities in the Caribbean through her teaching and research engagement with communities.

“She has advised Caribbean governments on policies and laws related to gender-based violence (GBV) and authored the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines National Gender-based Violence Action Plan,” the website reported.

DeShong has also co-designed a GBV and Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) curriculum for post-secondary students in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), and is the lead researcher and author of the qualitative component of the UN Women/CARICOM/Caribbean Development Bank Women’s Health Survey on violence against women in Grenada.

She also has served in diplomatic roles for SVG. From December 2019 to December 2021, she was Ambassador and Second Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations.

During SVG’s two-year term on the United Nations Security Council, she acted as the country’s expert on Women, Peace and Security; Children and Armed Conflict; Youth, Peace and Security; and the Protection of Civilians.

Back in October 2019, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said DeShong is a product of the Education Revolution and noted that she captained this country’s Under-23 netball team and the national netball team.

He said that she was also a teacher at the St Vincent Girls’ High School (GHS) for three years but despite all these achievements, could not get into university because of certain constraints.

In 2001, DeShong became the first Vincentian to be awarded a national sports scholarship to pursue tertiary education.

While at UWI, DeShong pursued an undergraduate programme in the Humanities – History with Literatures in English, and a postgraduate programme in Sociology/Social Policy at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies (SALISES). She holds both a BA and an MPhil from The UWI Cave Hill Campus.

She did her PhD in Sociology of Gender and Violence at the University of Manchester after being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship.