Caribbean Historian to Deliver 41st Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture

Caribbean-born historian Professor Richard Drayton will deliver the 41st Sir Winston Scott Memorial on Monday, November 28, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. at the Frank Collymore Hall where he will speak on the topic “The Time of Sovereignty: the History of Political Independence and its Future”.

“With the lecture coming only a few days before our 50th anniversary of independence, we wanted to use the opportunity to put its significance into context. We are very pleased to have Professor Drayton, an expert on imperial history, who is also a Barbados Scholar, as our speaker this year. He will offer a unique and well-informed perspective,” Novaline Brewster, Public Affairs Officer at the Central Bank commented.

Drayton was born in Guyana but migrated to Barbados in the early 1970s. He attended Harrison College from 1974 to 1982, and after being awarded a Barbados Scholarship, he continued his education at Harvard and Yale universities. He also received the Caribbean Rhodes Scholarship in 1988, which took him to Oxford University. He later returned to Yale, where he completed his PhD. Drayton now resides in London, where he holds the position of Sixth Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King’s College.

Brewster revealed that Drayton has retained a close connection to Barbados and the Caribbean throughout his years abroad. “Professor Drayton has been a very active member of the Barbadian diaspora over the years, so much so that our High Commission in London has nominated him for the Golden Jubilee Award for Service to Barbados in the UK.”

During his visit, Drayton will play a role in another of the Central Bank’s Sir Winston Scott Memorial activities; he will act as head judge for a schools’ essay competition. For that competition, secondary and tertiary level students between the ages of 14 and 18 were asked to write on the topic “What is the meaning of Independence to Barbados? What have we achieved? What should we aim for?” The winner of the essay competition will be announced at the lecture, and he or she will receive an all-expenses paid trip to England, including a visit to King’s College.

Brewster issued an invitation for Barbadians to attend the lecture. “We encourage everyone to come out on November 28 to hear Professor Drayton and to learn who is the winner of our essay competition. We also have something special planned to celebrate our golden jubilee,” she hinted.

Commenting on why Barbadians should attend the lecture, Professor Drayton underscored the importance of understanding one’s history, describing History as the discipline which comprehends all other disciplines, and which reaches both to the question of the origins and meaning of society, and towards how we might better live in and change the world. 

The Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture is the longest running lecture series in the Caribbean. Past speakers have included Dr. Irene Khan, former Secretary General of Amnesty International; Dr. David Suzuki, world-renowned environmentalist; and most recently, Caribbean-born venture capitalist, Dr. Nicholas Brathwaite.

2016-11-18