<p> Maroon communities are often portrayed as renegade groups of Africans living within or on the fringes of some of the more popular slave societies such as Jamaica, Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Suriname, or Brazil, whose purpose or goals in their existence was never to strive towards universal emancipation of the African lot, and whose resistance and radicalism, if occurring during the Age of Revolution (i.e. Haiti), is often attributed to European influences during that era. This socio-cultural and political history about a lesser known group of maroons in Dominica challenges the preconceived notions of African maroonage and resistance, and is original in four ways: One, this dissertation demonstrates that the maroons of Dominica who lived in the interior of the island worked with the enslaved population on plantations on several occasions to overthrow the British colonial government in an attempt to assist their African brethren in freedom; Secondly, this work highlights the African origins of the spiritual and political philosophies, particularly the lesser credited Igbo, who comprised of a significant portion of Africans in Dominica, are what guided their anti-slavery and anti-colonial resistance; Thirdly, the maroons and enslaved populations, who demonstrated alliances with one another in Dominica during the 1790s and early nineteenth century were not influenced by French Revolutionary ideals, but were pursued for an alliance, and the former, in particular, often rejected alliances with French Revolutionary sympathizers; Lastly, this dissertation takes the maroons of Dominica outside the confines of a national history and connects it to the greater African Diaspora.</p>

<p> Leadership inequity and gender inequality continue to be a concern in society. While women move forward to achieve greater gender equality, a particular group of women, African Americans and Caribbeans, continue to experience significant challenges in the areas of leadership and gender equality in an organizational setting. For this dissertation research, the focus is on Caribbean women. The purpose of the study is to examine the lived experiences of Caribbean women in senior-level leadership positions. This researcher used Husserl&rsquo;s transcendental phenomenology approach to gain an understanding of each woman&rsquo;s individual experience as a Caribbean woman in her leadership position. The participants in the study were 10 Caribbean women in senior level leadership positions. The data were gathered using a conversational format and open-ended questions to help participants express their feelings on a deeper level. To analyze the data, a line-by-line approach was implemented to determine themes within the collected data. The results were that some of the Caribbean women faced challenges when making attempts to climb the leadership ladder. Those who faced challenges blamed the challenges they faced on the lack of support from family members, management, and their inability to find mentoring and networking services. They became frustrated with these challenges. Leadership theories&mdash;charismatic leadership theory, transformational leadership theory, transactional leadership theory and social identity theory&mdash;were used to guide the data analysis and findings of the study. Each participant reflected on an aspect of leadership and its application to themselves. The participants gained insight into how their social identities may have had an impact on their understanding of themselves in their leadership positions. </p>

<p> The Roat&aacute;n Spiny-tailed Iguana (<i>Ctenosaura oedirhina </i>) is endemic to the 146-km² island of Roat&aacute;n, Honduras. Harvesting for consumption, fragmentation of habitat, and predation by domestic animals threaten this lizard. It is currently listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as threatened by the Honduran government, and is on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This species has been geographically fragmented and genetically isolated into small subpopulations that are declining in density. With data gathered from use/availability surveys, resource selection functions were used to identify habitats and environmental variables associated with their presence. Results indicate that protection from harvesting is the most important factor in determining their distribution. These high-density populations are currently restricted to &sim;0.6 km². Organisms living in small, isolated populations with very restricted ranges are at higher risk of extirpation due</p><p> to various direct and indirect forces. Mark-recapture-resight surveys and distance sampling have been used to monitor the populations since 2010 and 2012 respectively. The data show that the high-density populations are declining. The current population size is estimated to be 4130-4860 individuals in 2015. A population viability analysis (PVA) was conducted to identify the most pressing threats and specific life history traits that are affecting this decline. The analysis estimates that if current trends persist, the species will be extinct in the wild in less than ten years. Adult mortality is a main factor and female mortality specifically characterizes this decline. In order for this species to persist over the next fifty years, adult mortality needs to be reduced by more than 50%. A lack of enforcement of the current laws results in the persistence of the main threat, poaching for consumption, thus altering the species distribution and causing high adult mortality. This is complicated by social customs and a lack of post primary education. Management changes could mitigate this threat and slow the population decline. Recommendations include an education campaign on the island, increased enforcement of the current laws, and breeding of <i>C. oedirhina in situ</i> and <i> ex situ</i> for release into the wild.</p>

<p> The event that scholars and Jamaicans frequently call the &ldquo;Morant Bay Rebellion&rdquo; of 1865 resulted in long-term social and political consequences which profoundly shaped the course of Jamaican history. Yet contestation concerning the name and the naming of this event by Jamaican people on the ground has received scant attention in the historiography. In contrast to previous approaches, this thesis establishes that ordinary, subaltern Jamaicans from 1865 to the present day specifically named and remembered the events in question as a <i> war</i> at the exclusion of names like &ldquo;rebellion,&rdquo; &ldquo;uprising,&rdquo; &ldquo;riot,&rdquo; and &ldquo;insurrection,&rdquo; and that (post)colonial elites, aided by conventional scholars and commentators, have omitted this history in order to (re)produce and legitimize the idea that oppression and exploitation on the basis of race are things of the past. In turn, this thesis demonstrates that perceptions of blackness and whiteness during the events of 1865 were contingent and shifting rather than reducible to racial binaries and essentialisms which corresponded simply with skin color. Paul Bogle and his allies imagined blackness as tied to anti-statist political orientations, while many contemporaries in support of the colonial state used racial identification to represent and differentiate various groupings of black people as (dis)loyal to the governing regime and its racial hierarchies. </p>

The extensive educational reforms currently being implemented in Jamaica, in addition to my personal curiosity as a teacher educator, provide the rationale for this research. A better awareness and understanding of who enrols to learn to teach may be critical to the viability and success of the current reforms taking place in the Jamaican education system, and teacher education in particular. This study explores why Jamaican student teachers, who were not aspiring to learn to be teachers or teach, entered and completed a three-year teacher education programme. The study was guided by two essential research questions: (i) What accounts for Jamaican students, who indicate that teacher education and teaching are not their educational or occupational aspirations, entering and completing teacher education? (ii) What do these Jamaican students experience within the teacher education program that contributes to their belief that such a program is of benefit to their educational and occupational aspirations? Postcolonial theory (Ashcroft, Griffith & Tiffen, 1989) and theory of occupational choice (Ginzberg, 1963, 1972) serve as analytical frameworks to assist in better understanding the Jamaican student teacher experience. Qualitative methodology provided the means to including the essential “voices” of eight Jamaican student teachers; and, grounded theory the means to collecting and analysing what they had to say about entering and completing teacher education. The findings raise the notion of “youthfulness”, and how this may influence aspirations and decisions in an economic and academic environment of limited options and opportunities. They suggest that teacher education may serve as a “stepping-stone” to more desirable educational or occupational goals. The findings also reveal what these student teachers believed were significant aspects of the teacher education experience, and how this experience may contribute to their future educational or occupational plans and aspirations. Finally, this study supports the movement to reform teacher education in Jamaica; however, not at the expense of reducing the opportunities for higher education within the wider Jamaican populace. Suggestions are presented regarding possible reforms to secondary and post-secondary education in general; therefore, reforms which may support or enhance existing teacher education programmes.

<p> This dissertation identifies three previously unexplained typological asymmetries between creoles, other types of language contact, and `normal' sound change. (1) The merger gap deals with phoneme loss. French /y/ merges with /i/ in all creoles worldwide, whereas merger with /u/ is also well-attested in other forms of language contact. The rarity of /u/ reflexes in French creoles is unexplained, especially because they are well attested in French varieties spoken in West Africa. (2) The assimilation gap focuses on stress-conditioned vowel assimilation. In creoles the quality of the stressed vowel often spreads to unstressed vowels, e.g. English <i>potato</i> > Krio /&rgr;&epsiv;&rgr;&tgr;&epsiv;&tgr;&epsiv;/. Strikingly, we do not find the opposite in creoles, but it is well attested among non-creoles, e.g. German umlaut and Romance metaphony. (3) The epenthesis gap is about repairs of word-final consonants.These are often preserved in language contact by means of vowel insertion (epenthesis), e.g. English <i> big</i> > Sranan <i>bigi</i>, but in normal language transmission this sound change is said not to occur in word-final position.</p><p> These case studies make it possible to test various theories of sound change on new data, by relating language contact outcomes to the phonetics of non-native perception and L2 speech production. I also explore the implications of social interactions and historical developments unique to creolisation, with comparisons to other language contact situations.</p><p> Based on the typological gaps identified here, I propose that sociohistorical context, e.g. age of learner or nature of input, is critical in determining linguistic outcomes. Like phonetic variation, it can be biased in ways which produce asymmetries in sound change. Specifically, in language contact dominated by adult second language acquisition, we find transmission biases towards phonological rather than perceptual matching, overcompensation for perceptual weakness, and overgeneralisation of phrase-final prominence.</p>

<p> This exploratory study examines the individual and family effects on intergenerational educational attainment mobility giving focus to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, a small, newly-independent nation in the Caribbean region. </p><p> This study used a quantitative approach to provide an educational attainment profile of The Bahamas and to examine the effects of individual and family factors on the transmission of education from parent to child. The principal data sources used were the last three census reports produced in The Bahamas and the Bahamas Living Conditions Survey (BLCS) 2001dataset. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis techniques were engaged. Transitional matrices, calculated using various soico-demographic variables, enabled the intergenerational mobility regarding education to be determined. Logistic regression, using a range of explanatory variables, allowed for the measurement of individual and family effects on three states of intergenerational educational attainment mobility (IEM). </p><p> Findings revealed that while the majority of Bahamians have an 'intermediate' level of education, over the last two decades the percentage of persons with only a 'basic' education declined while the percentage of those with an 'advanced' education increased. Additionally, the Prais-Shorrock Mobility Index suggests that, from an educational attainment point of view, children are fairly independent of their parents. However, some socio-demographic groupings, such as the younger birth cohorts, urban dwellers and those entering school after the establishment of the Ministry of Education in 1964 are more educationally mobile than others. </p><p> When measuring the effects of parental education, individual and family factors on the three states of IEM, the following conclusions were drawn. Regarding parents' education, the educational attainment of the father appears to be more of a predictor of IEM than the education of the mother. Nationality, as an individual explanatory variable, seems rather predictable. The other three individual factors, while having some predictive value, seem far less consistent as predictors of IEM. Finally, parental occupational status is the only family factor that has demonstrated any effect on IEM.</p>

<p> Improvisation is regarded as the most sublime element in the <i> j&iacute;baro</i> folk music tradition of Puerto Rico. This tradition originated by the <i>j&iacute;baro</i>, the simple rural farmer of Puerto Rico's heartland, involves the complicated art of improvising in d&eacute;cima, a ten-line poetic form, as well as improvisation of melodic lines played on the cuatro, a small guitar-like instrument. Since <i> j&iacute;baro</i> improvisation is an art that is transmitted orally and involves a seemingly spontaneous act, it might seem odd to talk about a theory of improvisation within this style of music. My ethnographic research however has revealed that improvisation in <i>j&iacute;baro</i> music is actually a highly structured performance practice and involves an informal theory that is based on the knowledge of archetypal patterns that generate and organize <i>j&iacute;baro</i> improvisations. </p><p> Recent theories of music which establish parallels between music, language, and cognition (Lerdhal and Jackendoff; Clarke; Gjerdingen) have lead me to believe that improvisation in <i>j&iacute;baro</i> music is generated by the combination of archetypal patterns that create a musical syntax. These patterns are stored in minds of <i>j&iacute;baro</i> performers as cognitive schemas. My study is also based on the work of Puerto Rican scholars Luis M. Alvarez and Angel Quintero who have identified African rhythmic patterns as the generative musical source in many styles of Puerto Rican folk music. By combining theories of music and ethnographic methods, this paper will provide a greater understanding of orally transmitted cultural expressions, which utilize improvisation, as well as give insight to the cognitive processes that shape this performance practice.</p>

<p> This study traces the history of birth control and reproductive politics in the West Indies from the 1930s to the 1970s, focusing on Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and Bermuda. During this period, a diverse group of activists began to organize in order to spread modern contraceptives to the working classes. These efforts provoked widespread debate over reproduction and led to the opening of the region's first birth control clinics from the 1930s to 1950s. Birth control advocates also pressured politicians to support the cause, and by the late 1960s/early 1970s nearly every newly-independent government in the region had committed itself to state-funded family planning services. </p><p> Utilizing papers of family planning advocates and associations, government records, newspapers, pamphlets, and reports, this study places these birth control campaigns and debates within the context of Caribbean political and social movements, the rise of the international birth control campaign, working class family life and gender relations, the decline of British rule, and the expansion of political independence across the region. It demonstrates that &mdash; as argued by much of the scholarly literature on the international birth control movement &mdash; early campaigns in the West Indies were initiated and funded largely by local and foreign (white) elites, and were pushed by many conservative actors who blamed political and economic instability on working class (black) fertility as a means to stave off wider reforms. However, this study also shows that the birth control cause found support among a much wider demographic on these islands, including anti-imperial politicians who incorporated birth control into broader development plans, doctors, nurses, and social workers who saw it as a critical measure to aid working class families, black nationalist feminists who argued that it was a woman's right, and working class women and men who seized the opportunity to exercise a measure of control over their reproductive lives. These actors shaped both reproductive politics and the delivery of birth control services on the ground over the course of the twentieth century, producing campaigns that were more diverse, decentralized, and dynamic than they appear on the surface.</p>

<p> During the 17^th Century, the Caribbean saw an explosion in seaborne raiding. The most common targets of these raids were Spanish ships and coastal towns. Some of the men who went on these raids experienced degrees of social and economic mobility that would not have been possible in continental Europe. This was because the 17^th Century Caribbean created an environment where such mobility was possible. Among these was a Welshman was known to his compatriots as Harry Morgan. By the end of his life, Morgan would become one of the most famous buccaneers in history, a wealthy sugar planter, the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, and a knight. </p><p> No one is exactly sure of Morgan's social status before he entered the Caribbean. Historians largely agree that he was born to a freeholding family in Wales, although some dissenters contend that Morgan entered the Caribbean as an indentured servant. From either position, he experienced a high degree of social and economic mobility through his raids against the Spanish Empire and the conventional businesses that those raids funded. His life does not represent the way that social or economic mobility worked for a typical buccaneer. What it does represent is the best case scenario for an individual who came to the Caribbean and engaged in buccaneering. Morgan utilized his raiding as a means to fund more conventional business interests such as sugar planting. This paper argues that the Caribbean provided a unique political, economic, and military atmosphere for an individual to climb the social and economic ladder from Harry Morgan, a common buccaneer, to Sir Henry Morgan, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica and Admiral of Buccaneers.</p>