7/07/2010 The University of the West Indies, Mona, announces the Inaugural Rastafari Studies Conference under the theme “Negotiating the African Presence: Rastafari Livity and Scholarship”, to take place on the Mona Campus from August 17-20, 2010. The conference, organized under the auspices of the Institute of Caribbean Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Education and the Office of the Principal, is earmarked to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Report on the Rastafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica (1960) researched and written by M.G. Smith, Roy Augier and Rex Nettleford and published by the then Institute of Social and Economic Research (now Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies). The Report marked a turning point in the relations between the Rastafari and the wider Jamaican society, paving the way for a better understanding and accommodation.

Originally planned in partnership with the Ethio-Africa Diaspora Union Millennium Council (Millennium Council) of the Rastafari, the conference is now an entirely UWI initiative, following the regrettable withdrawal of the Millennium Council from the collaboration. Following the opening by Professor Sir Roy Augier on the evening of August 17, one hundred and twenty scholars, artists and elders will present and discuss papers in over forty panels, plenaries, exhibitions and film screenings, covering a full range of academic and experiential inquiry around the Rastafari movement in the Jamaican, Caribbean and global contexts. Students, scholars, journalists and members of the general public are all welcome to this important event. For more information please contact the conference secretariat at [email protected]. Organizing Committee Inaugural Rastafari Studies Conference Institute of Caribbean Studies UWI, Mona Campus

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