J. VIJAY MAHARAJ: CURRICULUM VITAE
1 November 5, 2019
J. VIJAY MAHARAJ: CURRICULUM VITAE
JVijayMaharaj
CONTACT INFORMATION
Email: [email protected] or
Skype ID: Vijay Maharaj
Twitter: @VijayMaharaj1
WORK:
c/o Department of Literary, Cultural and
Communication Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Education
The University of the West Indies
St Augustine
Telephone (Work): (868) 662-2002 Ext
83039 or 82035 (message)
Fax: (868) 663-5059
Email: [email protected]
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QUALIFICATIONS
Granting Institution: The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
2009 PhD Literatures in English
Dissertation Title: ‘A Caribbean Katha: Re-visioning the ‘Indo-
Caribbean’ ‘Crisis of Being and Belonging’ through the Literary
Imagination.
Examines twelve works published between 1877 and 1998
and traces changes and continuities in representations of
indentured labourers from India and their Caribbean
descendants.
Analyzes these changes and continuities in terms of the
defining frameworks in which they are embedded – broadly
speaking, colonial, anti-colonial / nationalist/ modernist, and
finally the postmodernist and postcolonial which include
discourses of ethnic re/construction.
Engages with the various manifestations of the Caribbean
creolisation discourse by examining how ideas of cultural,
genetic and other perceived forms of mixing are articulated
within the frameworks mentioned above
The research is informed by and organized in terms of an
indigenous discursive/ story-telling form – the Asian kathaa
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re created in the Caribbean by the descendants of the
indentured labourers. This move is an attempt to own the
theoretical space of aesthetic analysis as per the concept of the
‘organic intellectual.’ This was posited internationally by
Antonio Gramsci and appropriated via Michel Foucault and
Gilles Deleuze by Caribbean and postcolonial intellectuals such
as Stuart Hall, Edouard Glissant, Edward Said and others. But
it has also always been articulated independently in Caribbean
writing by Wilson Harris. George Lamming, Edward Kamau
Brathwaite, V.S Naipaul, Sylvia Wynter and others.
December 2006 Certificate in (University) Tertiary Level (CUTL) Teaching
(See https://sta.uwi.edu/cetl/teaching/cutl/main.asp for programme composition)
August 2001 Certificate in Language Teaching and Learning
February 2000 B.A (Hons) - Majors - Literatures in English, Sociology
Granting Institution: Corinth Teachers College
July 1996 Teachers’ Diploma
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PUBLICATIONS
I - Chapters in Academic Monographs:
Introduction - The First Naipaul Seven: From The Mystic Masseur to The Middle
Passage
and Beyond Bloomsbury Academic, 2019 (forthcoming).
‘A Case of Too Many Mystic Masseurs” Chapter in The First Naipaul Seven: From The
Mystic Masseur to The Middle Passage and Beyond Bloomsbury Academic, 2019
(forthcoming).
Introduction - Memories of India ed. J Vijay Maharaj and Radica Mahase Delhi:
Manohar, 2019 (forthcoming).
Introduction - Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Synergies. Peepal Tree Press, 2019
‘The Mustard Seed’ Chapter in Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Synergies. Peepal Tree,
2019
‘Unknown Protagonists of Independence’ Chapter in Fires of Hope: Fifty Years of
Independence in Trinidad and Tobago ed Debra Mc Collin Kingston, Jamaica: The UWI
Press, 2016.
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‘Cascadura Lovesongs: Displacing Indo-, Afro-, and Other Centricities in
Selvon’s Romance’ - Chapter in Beyond Calypso: Re-reading Samuel Selvon ed.
Malachi McIntosh. Kingston Jamaica: Ian Randle Press, 2016.
‘The Nation in the Literary Imagi-Nation: A Question of Human Dignity’ - Chapter
in Contemporary Caribbean Dynamics: Reconfiguring Caribbean Culture ed. Beatrice
Boufoy-Bastick and Savrina Chinien. Kingston Jamaica: Ian Randle Press, 2015.
‘A Study of the Imperial Gaze: Jenkins’s Lutchmee and Dilloo’ - Chapter in Postscripts:
Caribbean Perspectives on the British Canon from Shakespeare to Dickens ed. Barbara Lalla
and Giselle Rampaul. Kingston, Jamaica: The UWI Press, 2014.
‘Mr Biswas: Paragon of Creole Virtues’ - Chapter in V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr
Biswas: Critical Perspectives ed. Meenakshi Bharat. New Delhi: Pencraft International,
2013.
‘Caribbean Politics and Poetics’ - Chapter in Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean
Women’s Literature ed. Mariam Pirbhai and Joy Mahabir. New York and London:
Routledge, 2012.
‘A Mala in Obeisance: Hinduism in Select Works by V. S. Naipaul’ - Chapter in Created
in the West Indies: Caribbean Perspectives on V.S. Naipaul ed. Jennifer Rahim and Barbara
Lalla. Kingston, Jamaica: The UWI Press, 2011.
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II - Articles in Peer-reviewed Journals
“The Politics and Aesthetics of Recognition: A Case of Too Many Masseurs?” Tout
Moun: A Caribbean Journal of Cultural Studies May 2019
Review of Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought in The Journal of West Indian Literature
November 2017
‘The Trials of Becoming a Man in Cyril Dabydeen’s The Wizard Swami’ in Journal of
West Indian Literature Vol 21 Nos. 1&2 November 2012
‘Negotiations of Multiculturalism through Mimicry and Hybridity’ in Journal of the
Department of Behavioural Sciences UWI St Augustine Vol. 1 No 1 March 2012
‘Banal Violence: Abject Plantation Legacies’ in Tout Moun: A Journal of Caribbean
Cultural Studies Vol l No 1 August 2011
‘A Mala in Obeisance’ Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal Vol 5 No 2 2007.
III – edited collections
Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Creative Synergies ed. J. Vijay Maharaj Peepal Tree Press, 2019
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Memories of India ed. J Vijay Maharaj and Radica Mahase Delhi: Manohar, 2019
(forthcoming).
The First Naipaul Seven: From The Mystic Masseur to The Middle Passage and Beyond
Bloomsbury Academic, 2019 (forthcoming).
Other Publications
1. “Seepersad & Sons Conference to explore the role of the Naipaul family” UWI Today
Sunday 3rd May, 2015 p. 14
2. “Seepersad & Sons: The Debunking of Myths” UWI Today Sunday 7th June, 2015 p.
21
3. “Shiva in the Naipaul Dynasty” UWI Today Sunday 5th July, 2015 p. 17
4. “The Plenitude of VS Naipaul” UWI Today Sunday 6th September, 2015 p. 15
5. “A Writer’s People for V.S. Naipaul: Created in the West Indies” UWI Today
Sunday 6th September, 2018 pp. 8-9. See
https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/pdfs/UWItodayseptember2018.pdf
6. “Teaching V.S. Naipaul in the Caribbean” Conversations August 28, 2018.
See https://theconversation.com/teaching-v-s-naipaul-in-the-caribbean-
101653
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SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
October 2019 “Naipaulian Aesthetics: From Fact to Fiction in ‘The Killings in Trinidad and
Guerrillas” presented at the 48th Annual Conference on South Asia at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison
August 2019 “Caribbean Aesthetics in Guerrillas” presented at CARIFESTA 2019 held at the
University of the West Indies St Augustine
June 2019 “The Question of Reparation in the work of Earl Lovelace” presented at the
Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Philosophical Association held at Brown University Rhode
Island USA
November 2018 – “The View from the Shoulders on which I Stand: On Ryhaan Shah’s A
Silent Life” presented at the 25th Anniversary Celebrations of the Institute of Gender and
Development Studies The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus
September 2017 – ‘ISBN: Caribbean Theory and Faction’ presented at the 36th Annual West
Indian Literature Conference, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
May 2017 – ‘Interrogation of “Common Sense” in Ralph de Boissiere’s Rum and Coca-Cola’
presented at the second annual Stuart Hall conference The University of the West Indies,
Mona campus
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October 2015 – ‘Under the Sign of Unhappiness: Future Theoretical Directions for Reading
the Naipauls’ Writing’ presented at the conference Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Creative
Synergies at the UWI St Augustine campus
May 2015 – ‘Beyond Words: The Mixed-up Life of the Indo-Caribbean Woman’ presented at
the Indian Diaspora Conference hosted by the Department of History at the UWI St Augustine
campus
November 2014: ‘Hinduism in Caribbean Literature: Moments with V. S. Naipaul’ presented
at the annual International Conference on Caribbean Literature (ICCL) Curacao
March 2013: ‘Joining the Calls for Reparations for Enslavement: Earl Lovelace’s Call in Salt’
presented at the Annual Conference of the National Council for Black Studies at IUPUI,
Indianapolis, Indiana
October 2012: ‘The Nation in the Literary Imagination: A Question for Human Dignity’
presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the West Indian Literature Conference ‘Imagined
Nations, 50 Years Later: Reflections on Independence and Federation in the Caribbean’
Hosted by: Caribbean Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Miami Coral Gables,
Miami, Florida
May 2012: ‘Antyesthi Samskara: Messages from Experiences of Death’ Indian Diaspora
Conference hosted by Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in St Vincent
June 2011: ‘Hum na Jani; Kuch na Bol: Being and Becoming Indo-Caribbean’ Global South
Asian Diaspora Conference, UWI, St Augustine
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April 2011: ‘Kathaa: A New Research Methodology’ New Geographies: Globalization
Conference. University of the West Indies St Augustine
June 2010: ‘Indo-Caribbean Women on the Political Landscape’ 29th West Indian Literature
Conference, University of Guyana, Georgetown Campus
April 2007: ‘The Cultural Revolution of Technology in the English Language Foundation
Programme: A SWOT Analysis’ SOE Biennial Conference, UWI, St Augustine
May 2005 – ‘Between Ariel and Caliban: Caribbean Cultural and Political Identity Theories’
Conference on Globalisation, University of Suriname
March 2003 – ‘Racism and Political Trauma in For the Love of My Name’ West Indian
Literature Conference, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
Sept. 2002 – ‘Did the Precipice Move with the House?: Reconstruction of the IndoCaribbean
Home and Family’ Conference at the University of Guyana, Berbice campus.
March 2002 – ‘The Imbrication of the Victorian Myth of the Family in The Mystic Masseur’
21st West Indian Literature Conference at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill,
Barbados
March 2001 – ‘Born with Cojones: Caribbean Subjectivity in Robert Antoni’s Divina Trace’
20th Annual West Indian Literature Conference at the University of the West Indies, St.
Augustine
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
The making of political and cultural identities particularly in relation to gender and sexuality, racialization and ethnicization, and globalization
The present in view of the trauma of postcolonial/ modern history
Literature and theory and their epistemological impact for social and ideological change in
the twenty-first century and beyond
Neuroscience and Literature: Exploring mutual concerns and contributions of each to each
Narrative construction and humanness
Research methodologies: Indigenous technologies, action research, discourse analysis
WORK EXPERIENCE
September 2000 – Present:
Lecturer and Academic Adviser: Department of Literary, Cultural and
Communication Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Education, the University of
the West Indies, St Augustine
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POSTGRADUATE TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Taught students enrolled in:
Master of Arts (MA)
• Literatures in English
• Cultural Studies
• Spanish
• French
Master of Fine Arts
(MFA)
• Creative Writing (Fiction)
Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
• Literatures in English
• Cultural Studies
• French
• Spanish
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
• Literatures in English
• French
• Spanish
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Postgraduate Courses Taught:
(For course details not already suggested in course titles, see:
http://sta.uwi.edu/fhe/dlcc/LIEPG.asp
Modern Cultural and Critical Theory
Caribbean Poetics
Women’s Writing and Feminist Theory
Postmodern Literature and Theory
Postcolonial Literature and Theory
West Indian Literature –Special Topics: History, Society, Politics and Systems of
Human Categorization
Modules delivered in the following courses:
Dynamics of Caribbean Culture
Theory and Conceptualization of Culture
Debates in Caribbean Cultural Identity
Research Methods in Literary Discourse
POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SUPERVISION
Literatures in English PhD dissertation:
Shamanism, Quantum Physics and Caribbean Social Realities in Wilson
Harris’s Theoretical and Creative Oeuvre (transferred)
Translations of the Raamaayan in Selected Contemporary Prose Fiction (ongoing)
Metaphysical fiction and the Postcolonial World (ongoing)
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Cultural Studies MPhil dissertations
The Role of Play in Early Adolescence (graduated)
The Preservation of Indigenous Rituals and Traditions in the Caribbean and
Latin America (transferred)
Literatures in English MPhil dissertations:
The Divided Self in the Work of Caribbean Writers. (graduated)
Negotiating Indo-Trinidadian Identity in the work of Ismith Khan (ongoing)
Literatures in English MA dissertations:
A Quest for the Intangible: An Analysis of the Shamanic Journey in Wilson
Harris’s The Guyana Quartet (graduated with distinction)
The Postmodern Caribbean Subject in V.S. Naipaul’s, A Way in the World; Wilson
Harris’s, Palace of the Peacock and Nalo Hokinson’s, Midnight Robber (graduated with
distinction)
Karma, Sectarianism and Education: Evolution of the Indo-Trinidadian
Novel (graduated)
Key Concepts: Translation, Migration and Diaspora in Salman Rushdie’s
Midnight’s Children (graduated)
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The Caribbean Postmodern in the Postmodern Caribbean: A Study of the works of
Oonya Kempadoo, Raymond Ramcharitar and Robert Antoni (graduated)
Danger Zones: Representing IndoCaribbean Sexualities outside the Box (graduated
with distinction)
Use and Abuse of Power in the Harry Potter Series (graduated with distinction)
‘Discovering’ the ‘Indian’ Man in Trinidadian Literature and Culture (working)
Nihilism and Contemporary Caribbean Thought and Culture (working)
The Autobiographical Impulse in Selected Indo-Trinidadian Women’s
Literature (working)
Reflections on Masculinity in the Indian Diaspora in V. S. Naipaul’s Oeuvre
(working)
SELECTED POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SEMINARS AND
THESES EXAMINED
1. Within and Beyond the Nation: Reading the Postnationalist Condition in
Selected Works of Salman Rushdie
2. Caribbean Postmodern-Speculative Fiction: From Twentieth Century
Writers to the Contemporary Writings of Raymond Ramcharitar and
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Rabindranath Maharaj
3. Christianity, Imperialism and Being in the Novels of George Lamming
4. Spirit Presences in Selected Caribbean Literary Works
5. Communicating a ‘Sound’ Identity: (Con)Fusing the ‘Indo Soundscape’
through Chutney as a Culture of Remix in Trinidad
6. Portraits of Sita: Tulsidasji’s Ramacharitramanas and Caribbean Literature
7. The Caribbean Zenana: Agoraphobia in IndoCaribbean Women’s Literature
8. From Chaucer to Walcott: Postcolonial Re-interpretations
9. Sexuality and the Female Experience in Caribbean Women’s Poetry.
10. History and Landscape in V. S. Naipaul’s short stories
11. Psychological Trauma and Lack of Self in West Indian Literature
12. Representations of Fluid Sexuality in West Indian Texts: A Study of
Works by Patricia Powell, Shani Mootoo and Michelle Cliff
13. Through the Eyes of a Child: Analysis of Childhood Experiences in
selected Trinidadian novels
14. Alienation and Alien Nation – the treatment of alienation and womanhood in
Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber and Brown Girl in The Ring
15. A Critical Study of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series
16. Women as their own enemy: Oppression in the Short Stories of Ana Lydia Vega.
17. The Role of Tradition in Selected Works of Federico Garcia Lorca
18. Culture as a Site for Critical Pedagogy and the Transformation of
Consciousness in the English Speaking Caribbean
19. A History of Chutney Music in Trinidad and Tobago
20. Women in Trinidad and Tobago Calypso: A Missing Generation
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21. Eliot, Lawrence, Brathwaite, Walcott: Versions of Modernism
22. The Psychodynamics of Gender and Sexuality: Harold Pinter's Dramatic Works
23. An exploration of the theme of violence in the works of Gisèle Pineau
and Edwidge Danticat
24. Comparison of the opposing world views of C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles
of Narnia and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy
25. The Romance Hero in 19th Century West Indian Literature
26. Space and Time in the Construction of the Divided Self in Selected Fiction of
V.S. Naipaul
27. Construction of Cultural Identity in the Progeny of Afro-Indo
Marriages in Trinidad
28. Pegasus and Martin Carter’s Vision of Restorative Justice
29. African Diasporic Traditions in Caribbean Music: Jamaica’s Mento and
Tobago’s Tambrin
UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Taught and examined the following courses to students enrolled in a number of faculties
and degree programmes
Courses delivered:
(See further course details not suggested in titles at
http://sta.uwi.edu/fhe/dlcc/LIEUG.asp):
1. Literatures in English Courses
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Introduction to Poetry
Introduction to Prose Fiction
Introduction to Drama
British Poetry: Donne to Byron
Key Issues in Literary Criticism
Twentieth Century Literary Theory
Introduction to West Indian Poetry A
Introduction to West Indian Poetry B: Selected West Indian Poets
West Indian Prose Fiction
Shakespeare I
The Origins and Development of American Literary Prose
African Literatures in English II: Drama and Poetry
Advanced Seminar in West Indian Literature A
Advanced Seminar in West Indian Literature B
Tradition and Change in Modern Literature A
Indian Literature in English
Literature of the Indian Diaspora
Gender, Violence and Trauma in Discourse
2. Foundation Courses
English for Academic Purposes
Argument and Report Writing
Writing about Literature
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Scientific and Technical Writing
Academic English for Research Purposes
Caribbean Studies Project/undergraduate dissertation
Faculty of Social Sciences, the University of the West Indies, St
Augustine Part-time Lecturer
Course: Caribbean Society, Culture, Literature and the Arts
Designed and delivered this course to students of Kalamazoo College who do one of their
compulsory foreign immersion experiences at the UWI St Augustine. The course is intended
to develop an understanding of the complexity of Caribbean socio-cultural issues embedded
in Caribbean arts.
TEACHING INTERESTS
Equity in education
Education for the development of critical, disciplinary, socio-cultural, ideological and
historical awareness
Development of effective techniques for feedback to students
Diversification of methods of assessment
Knowledge management and the use of ICT in education
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RECENT SELF-DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
1. Training in Postgraduate Supervision conducted by the Postgraduate Research Unit
2. OER - training by CETL
3. Creative Commons Licenses - training by CETL
4. Game-based learning - training by CETL
5. Ted-Ed Video Lessons - training by CETL
SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY
Website Development and Management
1) DLCCS Website management – see sta.uwi.edu/dlccs
2) Development of a V. S. Naipaul Memorial website – see linesoflifenaipaul.com
Reviewer for the following journals:
1. Tout Moun: A Caribbean Journal of Cultural Studies
2. Journal of West Indian Literature
3. Caribbean Quarterly
Committees
1. FHE Prizes Committee Member for FHE Prize Giving Ceremony.
2. Semester II 2018-19 - coordinator of the postgraduate Seminars and Inter-
departmental Staff Lunchtime Seminars.
3. April 2019 to present – Undergraduate programme coordinator
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4. Directed the re-branding and activities of the students’ campus book club re-named
The Pelican Book Club
Conference/Academic Event Organization:
1. Organized and chaired the first Annual V. S. Naipaul Memorial Lecture delivered by Ngugi
wa Thiong’o on August 17th 2019
2. Organized and chaired a Memorial on the passing of V. S. Naipaul on August 17th 2018
3. As Secretary of the NGO Friends of Mr Biswas arranged a commemoration of the life and
work of SC Dana Seetahal in collaboration with the Law Association held at their offices on
Frederick Street Port-of-Spain
4. Participated in the organization of conferences hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and
Education, Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies from 2000 to
present
Duties included:
Coordination of activities of the
Secretariat Panel Chair
Panellist
Performance of a variety of writing chores – call for papers, newspaper articles, letters of
invitation and for funding etc –
Currently being undertaken for:
1) Conference on the Literature of Trinidad and Tobago since 1980 to be
held in September 2020
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2) Conference on the Indian Diaspora and the 100th Anniversary of the
End of Indentureship to be held in May 2020 at the Divali Nagar
Recently accomplished as:
1) a member of the organizing committee for a conference entitled Seepersad
and Sons: Naipaulian Creative Synergies held from Wednesday 28th October to
Friday 30th October 2015
2) member of the organizing committee for a conference entitled The Global
Indian Diaspora 2016
3) member of the organizing committee for the 36th Annual West Indian
Literature Conference to be held from 4-7th October 2017
5. Participated in organization of the annual departmental event entitled ‘Dialogues’ at which
departmental publications are publicized and celebrated:
Duties included:
Presentation of book and film reviews
6. Participated in organization of the UWI St Augustine’s celebrations of the three Caribbean
Nobel Laureates undertaken through the Principal’s office over the period 2005 – 2007: Derek
Walcott, V. S. Naipaul and Arthur Lewis
Duties included:
Performed a wide variety of duties ranging from ushering to fielding and sorting
questions for the laureates from the public audience
7. Departmental Outreach Activities
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Duties included:
School Visits – St Benedict’s College March 2019
Faculty Open Day – May 2019 DCFA compound Cheeseman Avenue St Augustine –
preparation of background videos and manning of the desk
Co-coordinator and chair in 2013 of the annual departmental outreach to secondary
schools begun in 2012 and participation in organization of outreach otherwise
Coordinator of the annual Campus Literature Week 2012 including lunch time
readings and Gala close and have participated in organization as directed by
coordinator in other years
Invited lectures delivered to a number of schools, including St Augustine Girls High
School and ASJA Girls High School on CAPE set texts
8. Other services rendered
Member of the departmental committee on intellectual property rights and plagiarism
policy 2006-2007
One of the associate editors of the edited collection Caribbean Dynamics
Editor of reports coming out of the Business Development Office UWI St Augustine
between 2003-2008
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Interviewed Ian McDonald, Lakshmi Persaud and Rachel Manley over the 2011-
2014 period for the department’s open-access podcast series on Caribbean writers
– the brainchild of colleague Giselle Rampaul (See for example
http://www.spaceswords.com/?page_id=1861)
Ongoing participation in the Annual Bocas LitFest – a celebration of new books
and writers at the National Library (NALIS) – established in 2011
TERTIARY EXPERIENCES APART FROM THOSE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE
WEST INDIES
A. September 2008 – July 2010
Part-time Lecturer: College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and
Tobago (COSTAATT)
San Fernando Campus
Bishop Anstey Campus Port-of-
Spain Trinity East Campus
Central Campus Melville Lane Port-of-
Spain Courses delivered:
o COMM 117 – Communication Studies I
o ENGL 200 – Comparative Literature
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B. September 2002 – August 2006
External Examiner/Moderator: University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) (Previously
Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Technology)
Courses examined:
Comm 238 – Technical Communication I
ITEC 3372 – Communication in Science and Technology
Assess syllabi, evaluate marking of scripts and provide feedback and evaluations to the
coordinator of the Communications programme
C. September 2007 - August 2011
Caribbean Examinations
Council
Examiner
D. September 2000 - August 2011 (apart from periods on secondment to UWI or on study leave)
Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago - Ministry of Education
(GORTT-MOE) Valencia Secondary School
Vice-Principal and Principal (Ag)
Managed the human and material resources of the department
Oversight of the use of the school by the community for adult education and other
purposes Member of the District Management Project
Financial Management
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Fund raising Management
Professional Development Management
Host of the Parent-Teacher Organisation and its activities
Head - Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Taught English Language and Literatures to all forms
Managed the human and material resources of the
department
Ensured the efficient and effective delivery of the English and Spanish syllabi
Ensured the acquisition and development of teaching resources
Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) Staff Representative
GRANTS AND AWARDS
6. The University of the West Indies St Augustine Post-graduate Scholarship 2001-
2008
7. NEMLA Award 2011
8. Campus Research and Publication Award 2018-2019 for the project entitled
Lines of Life: The Naipauls of Trinidad
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PUBLIC SERVICE
1. Served as a panelist at the NCIC Indian Arrival Day celebrations on the subject
‘The Role of the Arts in Diaspora and Nation Building’ - May 2019
2. Sat as a Judge on Thursday 11th October 2018 at the Southern Academy
of the Performing Arts (SAPA) Poetry Challenge Finale for Milwaz
Productions
3. Lecture delivered to all HODs/designates for all English Language and
Literatures department at all Secondary Schools at the Rudranath Capildeo
Learning Resource Centre in Couva on May 22nd 2019
4. Secretary of the NGO Friends of Mr Biswas with responsibilities for community
and school outreach, publications, fund raising for property maintenance and
refurbishment, establishment of the Naipaul House as a United Nations Memory of
the World Site and as a site for cultural tourism in Trinidad and Tobago – Most
recent activity - Arranged a commemoration of the life and work of SC Dana
Seetahal in collaboration with the Law Association held at their offices on
Frederick Street Port-of-Spain
5. Chair of the quarterly Literary Evenings established by the Indo-Caribbean
Heritage Library which was launched to mark the 175th Anniversary of Indian
Arrival
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6. Invited lectures to persons undergoing treatment for social and personal rehabilitation at:
a. the HEAL Substance Abuse Prevention and
Rehabilitation Centre, Milton Village, Couva
b. Golden Grove Prison, Golden Grove Road, Arouca
c. Youth Training Centre Golden Grove Road, Arouca
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature and Media (IGEL)
Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers (ALSCW)
Modern Language Association
Northeastern Modern Language Association
(NEMLA) Caribbean Studies Association
National Council for Black Studies English Teachers’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago
CARIBAPAN – Caribbean Association for Regional Policy Development on Addiction
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REFERENCES
Professor Emeritus Kenneth Ramchand
(previously Professor Department of Liberal
Arts The University of the West Indies, St
Augustine) 2, Riverdale Terrace
St Joseph-Maracas, Trinidad
(1-868) 724-5203
Professor Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo
University of Trinidad and Tobago
(previously Professor Department of
History
The University of the West Indies, St
Augustine) Santa Margarita Circular
St Augustine
(1-868) 662-1128 or 365-8475
Dr David Rampersad
Senior Adviser to the Vice-
Chancellor Business Development
Office
The University of the West Indies, St
Augustine [email protected]
(1-868) 334-3722 or 685-7825
J. VIJAY MAHARAJ: CURRICULUM VITAE
30 November 5, 2019
Dr Maarit Forde
Head of
Department
Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication
Studies University of the West Indies
St Augustine
Trinidad and
Tobago
Office phone (868) 662 2002, ext 83033
Mobile phone (868) 306-319