Dr. Halimah DeShong from Saint Vincent has been appointed as the new Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at The University of the West Indies (The UWI).
On Wednesday, November 13, 2024, a post on the website www.uwitv.global announced that Dr. DeShong commenced her duties in September and is anticipated to serve a two-year term.
“She is an accomplished feminist researcher and Senior Lecturer, having previously served as Head of the IGDS’s Nita Barrow Unit at the Cave Hill Campus,” stated www.uwitv.global, highlighting that Dr. DeShong’s research centres on sexual and gender violence, feminist methodologies, anti-colonial feminisms, qualitative interviewing, and text and talk analysis.
Dr. DeShong has authored numerous publications, including her co-edited works: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 1: The State, Economy and Health; Interdisciplinary Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Caribbean, Volume 2: Society, Education and Human Behaviour; and Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender and Sexuality.
Dr. DeShong is dedicated to tackling persistent inequalities in the Caribbean by engaging with communities through her teaching and research.
“She has provided guidance to Caribbean governments on policies and laws pertaining to gender-based violence (GBV) and has written the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines National Gender-based Violence Action Plan,” the website stated.
DeShong has co-designed a curriculum focused on GBV and Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) for post-secondary students in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). Additionally, she serves as the lead researcher and author for the qualitative component of the UN Women/CARICOM/Caribbean Development Bank Women’s Health Survey addressing violence against women in Grenada.
She has also held diplomatic positions for SVG. She served as Ambassador and Second Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations from December 2019 to December 2021.
Throughout SVG’s two-year tenure on the United Nations Security Council, she served as the nation’s specialist on Women, Peace and Security; Children and Armed Conflict; Youth, Peace and Security; and the Protection of Civilians.
In October 2019, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves remarked that DeShong is a result of the Education Revolution, highlighting her role as captain of both the country’s Under-23 netball team and the national netball team.
He mentioned that she had also worked as a teacher at St Vincent Girls’ High School (GHS) for three years; however, despite these accomplishments, she was unable to gain admission to university due to certain constraints.
In 2001, DeShong made history as the first Vincentian to receive a national sports scholarship for tertiary education.
During their time at UWI, DeShong engaged in an undergraduate program in the Humanities, focussing on History with Literatures in English, as well as a postgraduate program in Sociology/Social Policy at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies (SALISES). She possesses a BA and an MPhil from The UWI Cave Hill Campus.
She completed her PhD in the Sociology of Gender and Violence at the University of Manchester, having been awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship.
