Locating Caribbean Studies in Unending Conversation

This essay works through how seeing Caribbean Studies from my singular location – a Caribbean diaspora human geographer based in the UK but interested in the Caribbean as an area of study – leads to ‘conversations’ with a range of differently located academics, and locates Caribbean Studies in very particular ways. The particular concept of conversation comes through Hall’s (1993) Walter Rodney Memorial Lecture, published as ‘Negotiating Caribbean Identities’ in New Left Review. This routing leads to two critiques of defining one’s own cultural and disciplinary identity through Caribbean Studies, and also points to a renewal of Caribbean Studies, through unending conversations in and with the region.