United Nations (UN) human rights expert Dr. Verene Shepherd is headed for the 8th annual St. Martin Book Fair, June 3-5, 2010, said Shujah Reiph, chairman of the Book Fair Committee (BFC).
During her visit the award winning author will be a panelist on the definitive Caribbean writings and actvism of the late great scholar Prof. Rex Nettleford from Jamaica, said Reiph.
Dr. Shepherd will also visit a high school and conduct a book fair workshop on the subject of her new book Livestock, Sugar and Slavery.
Dr. Shepherd heads the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Her books include I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation and Postcolonial Jamaica (2007) and Maharani’s Misery: narratives of a Passage from India to the Caribbean (2002).
On April 12 professor Shepherd was in the Jamaican and regional news for being appointed to the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, said Reiph.
The Working Group was established in 2002 with a mandate to collaborate with respective countries to devise policies aimed at eradicating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.
Dr. Shepherd was selected from a large group of international candidates and will represent Latin America and the Caribbean, which form part of the UN Human Rights Council, according to one Observer newspaper article. The author/historian/professor has in fact replaced Prof. Nettleford who was appointed to the Working Group in 2008, stated the Observer article.
The St. Martin Book Fair has already lined up its roster of authors and workshop leaders, said Reiph. Dr. Shepherd will also join authors from the region, the USA and Canada at the book fair’s opening at the University of St. Martin and the closing ceremony at the Marigot Public Library.