History and identity across small islands : a Caribbean and a personal journey

Abstract

This paper is largely autobiographical: the author charts his own intellectual journey across the history, culture and identity of so-called `small` islands, with a special reference to the Caribbean. To do so, he reflects on his own forays into literature that discussed Caribbean history and culture; his own research experience in Barbados in connection with my doctoral research; and coming up to the present with insights that have emerged in the pursuit of an island studies imagination in my professional work. The paper concludes with a calling, and a justification, for the pursuit of island studies.