Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies
About Us
The Centre for Caribbean Studies was established in 1984 as one of the first research centres in the UK dedicated to the region. It encourages study of the Caribbean from a comparative, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective through academic events, fellowships and research projects.
Bussa emancipation statue, Barbados. c_Joanne Norcup
In 2010 it was renamed the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies in honour of the support given by the Guyanese philanthropist and businessman.
For 2025/26 the Director of the Centre is Dr Camillia Cowling.
News
Annual Walter Rodney lecture 2025
This year’s annual Walter Rodney lecture is on Tuesday 25th November, 5.15pm with guest speaker, Professor David Scott, Ruth and William Lubic Professor at Columbia University, who will give a talk, “On Losing and Gaining Conceptual Languages: Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa between Revolution and Reparation”
It will be held in Room OC0.04, Oculus Building. Refreshments will be available. All welcome.
photo credit: Ferrante Ferranti, 2023
David Scott is the author of many publications including Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality (1999), Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment (2004), Omens of Adversity: Tragedy, Time, Memory, Justice (2014), and Stuart Hall’s Voice: Intimations of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity (2017). Scott is also the founder and editor of the journal Small Axe and director of the Small Axe Project.
Public History and the Caribbean
Presentations were given by Kate Astbury on War and Resistance in the Caribbean: The Monuments at St Paul's, Maureen Cottle on Coventry's Caribbean history, and Lily Crowther on Leamington Spa and the Black Atlantic.
Ameena Gafoor in memoriam
The YPCCS pays respects to Dr Ameena Gafoor following her recent passing.
Events
Funding
The Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies provides two sources of funding:
- Gad Heuman postgraduate travel bursary - available every year to support substantive research in the Caribbean by PGT and PGR students at the Warwick University up to £2,000
- Caribbean Studies Visiting Fellowship - available to support a post-doctoral researcher or established academic currently based in the Caribbean who wishes to spend a short period at Warwick University with a Warwick-based academic, up to £4,000