Trinidad and Tobago Institute of the West Indies (TTIWI)
TTIWI was established in 1978 by the Tapia House Group and is run by a board of educators chaired by Professor Emeritus Knolly Alan Butler whose Deputy is Professor Emeritus Baldwin Mootoo . The Institute is directed by Lloyd Best.Its core work of research, publication and seminar discourse is carried out by a number of research fellows. These include Dr Fitzroy Baptiste , Dr Eric St Cyr, Dr Susan Craig, Dr Cary Fraser, Mr Gregory McGuire, Dr Kirk Meighoo, Dr Hugh Skinner, Ms Valerie Taylor, Dr Samuel Lochan.
TTIWI's parent body, Tapia, had itself been born in 1968 out of the New World Movement, a Group of young academics who'd emerged on campus at the crossing to political independence and who'd been inspired by the attempt at regional political integration through the Federation of the West Indies.
The Group hoped to answer the urge of a new generation to improve the life of the mind, to give expression to independent Caribbean thought and to advance the cause of a critical tradition. A journal and sundry papers were among their main media.
For Tapia the work of faithful reporting, critical commentary, theoretical speculation and practical prescription was to lend much insight into the wiles of history, the perils of interpretation, the role of accident and the importance of context. One corollary of all this is that the Institute has been an avowedly “guerrilla” operation, intellectually and epistemically subversive.
When a fire devastated Tapia's three-storey headquarters in Port of Spain in January 1982, such a posture seemed to have been pre-destined. We'd lost almost everything; TTIWI had little choice but to function as a shoe-string operation, effectively on the margin. It is not simply that we sought no funding but also that the demands of our integrity allowed us no such thing. We soon realized that, to make itself a reputable institution, able to command respect and resources on its own terms, TTIWI had to evolve and to take root, surfacing to command respect and resources on its own terms. The end had to become the beginning, the beginning the end.
TTIWI has undertaken research for multilateral agencies, governments and corporations. It conducts public lectures and seminars discussions and now runs a regular Seminar for Professionals. The Institute has run an Open College for secondary students. It now organizes courses, internships and field trips for university students from overseas. Its Course in Caribbean Civilization is offered during the Crop Time Term running from January to April. Its slate of lecturers includes Wayne Kublalsingh , Hugh Skinner, Kevin Baldeosingh, Fitzroy Baptiste , Winford James, Kirk Meighoo, Eric St Cyr, Lynette Atwell, Samuel Lochan, Cary Fraser, Gregory McGuire, Sylvia Moodie-Kublalsingh .
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