Two UWI St Augustine lecturers promoted to professor

Two lecturers from UWI, St Augustine, Dr Hamid Ghany and Dr Godfrey Steele, are among seven academics promoted to the rank of professor by UWI.

In a release, the university said the title of professor is its highest academic rank. It said the appointments were made after thorough evaluation of the quality and quantity of their research, publications, and other professional activities by internal and external assessors.The lecturers had received outstanding reviews in their respective areas of specialty it said.

The promotions took effect from September 30.

Ghany was promoted to Professor of Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies. He is the director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at UWI's St Augustine campus. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate political science and governance courses since 1993. Formerly dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences from 2003-2012, Ghany created the faculty’s Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies Unit. He also created the Sir Arthur Lewis Distinguished Lecture Series at SALISES since 2018.

As an academic, Ghany’s peer-reviewed portfolio features three books, including his 2018 Constitutional Development in the Commonwealth Caribbean, 21 book chapters and 13 journal articles.

In 2012, he was recognised for his long and meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago as an educator with the nation’s second highest award, the Chaconia Medal (Gold).

In response to receiving the promotion, Ghany said, “It is the highest academic accolade which any university lecturer can achieve. One's published works are subjected to blind peer review by international assessors to ensure quality control in making promotions. I have given the bulk of my professional life to the UWI. I am humbled by this promotion and its attendant recognition of my published academic works, my public service, and my service to the UWI.”

Steele has championed the development of communication studies across faculties and departments of the St Augustine campus for more than two decades. Formerly lecturer in communication skills for medical sciences from 1995-2004, Steele was most recently senior lecturer in communication studies in theFaculty of Humanities and Education. He was co-ordinator of the communication studies undergraduate programme (1999-2009) and the human communication studies graduate programme (2009-2017) and deputy dean, graduate studies and research (2011). He has designed several courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

His peer-reviewed publications feature four books—including Health Communication: Principles and Practices (2019), nine book chapters, 17 journal articles, 13 conference papers, five technical reports, and he has 79 refereed conference papers. He has two book manuscripts in preparation: Communication, Culture and Conflict and Health Communication: Policy and Practice. ProfSteele received the UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award (2000) and Most Outstanding Classroom Research (2008).

Steele holds a PhD (linguistics, 2000), an MA in education (1995) and a BA in English (1982) all from UWI, St Augustine.

The other lecturers promoted were Dr Isabelle Constant at the UWI Cave Hill campus and Charles Grant, Dr Kathleen Monteith, Dr Monika Parshad-Asnani and Dr Helen Trotman-Edwards at the UWI Mona campus.