Name Kenneth Ramchand | Role Critic | |
Education University of Edinburgh (1967) Books The West Indian novel and its background, Critical Perspectives on Wilson Harris Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, Latin America & Caribbean Similar People Sam Selvon, Roger Mais, Jean Rhys, Susheila Nasta | ||
The politics of location caribbean perspectives 1 kenneth ramchand a history of collecting
Dr. Kenneth Ramchand, Ph.D. (born 1939 in Trinidad), is widely respected as "arguably the most prominent living critic of Caribbean fiction". He has written extensively on many West Indian authors, including V. S. Naipaul, Earl Lovelace and Sam Selvon, as well as editing several significant cultural publications. His seminal text, The West Indian Novel and Its Background (1970), had a transformational effect on the syllabus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the internationalization of West Indian literature as an academic discipline.
Contents
- The politics of location caribbean perspectives 1 kenneth ramchand a history of collecting
- Career
- Awards
- References
Ramchand is Professor Emeritus of English at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). Until he resigned in June 2009, he was associate provost at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). He was for some years an independent Senator in the Senate of Trinidad and Tobago. Ramchand is also an Emeritus Professor at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
Career
Ramchand holds an MA and PhD from Edinburgh University, where he went as a scholarship student from Trinidad (1959–63).
His first book, The West Indian Novel and Its Background was published in 1970, and he has noted: "I wrote it at just the right time. It was influential in the creation and internationalization of an academic discipline called 'West Indian Literature'; it stimulated the development of graduate studies in the Department of English of the University of the West Indies; and it was seminal in the transformation of the syllabus of 'English' at the University of the West Indies." Ramchand was UWI's first Professor of West Indian Literature and he was Head of the Department of Liberal Arts at St. Augustine for several years.
He has also been a Senior Fulbright Scholar affiliated to Yale University and the University of Tulsa at Oklahoma, a Visiting Professor at Indiana University and Colgate University, as well as a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
In 2005 he was appointed chairman of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), a position he held until 2009.
Awards
In 1996, Ramchand was awarded a Trinidad & Tobago Chaconia Medal Gold for his work in Literature, Education and Culture.
In 2012, the National Library of Trinidad and Tobago honoured him with a NALIS Lifetime Literary Achievement Award.
At the 2014 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Ramchand was honoured alongside Professor Gordon Rohlehr with the Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters, which recognises the lifetime achievement of editors, publishers, critics and broadcasters.