Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 @ 4:00pm, Walker 201D 

Knowledge and Law in the Caribbean

• Matthew Strickland (History) “Civilizing Slaves: Imperialism, Anglicanism, and African Slavery on Codrington Plantation” 

Matthew Strickland’s presentation discusses the lives of enslaved people on Codrington Plantation on Barbados and the role of religious conversion that occurred there from 1710 to emancipation in 1838. Mr. Strickland focuses on the period when the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts owned the two sugar plantations. The following questions animate his research project about religious imperialism: How did the encounter with African slavery inform the Society’s theology of race and how did the enslaved Africans perceive their place within this imperial order? Analyzing a range of sources, including financial records, letters, and sermons, Mr. Strickland argues that the Society developed a civilizing mission as a precursor to religious conversion. By “civilizing” enslaved people, Anglican clergy believed slavery could be domesticated for British imperial interests.

• Tameka Samuels-Jones (Sociology and Criminology & Law) “Regulatory Law and Local Stakeholder influences on Green Crime in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica” 

Tameka Samuels-Jones’s talk addresses questions about conflicting state regulations and indigenous cultural beliefs in the Blue and John Crow Mountains of Jamaica. The region has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, yet it is threatened by illegal deforestation, water pollution, and poaching. Ms. Samuels-Jones focuses on three groups in the area, the Marrons, Rastafarians, and local coffee farmers, and their relationship to the State law. Based on methodologies in Green Cultural Criminology, her research project provides insight into the cultural and legal factors that determine how to govern natural resources successfully.