The Spring 2003 Whichard Distinguished Professor in Women's Studies is Dr. Erna Brodber of the Department of Sociology of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Brodber was educated at the University College of the West Indies n London from which she received a BA with honors in History. She went on to receive a Master of Science degree in Sociology form the same institution and her Ph.D. in History from the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica.
Reared in a family active in social issues, Brodber engaged with both academia and a variety of careers before her critical success as a novelist. She has immersed herself in collecting the stories of elders in her communities and has written an important study, "Rural-Urban Migration and the Jamaican Child," for UNESCO. Echoes of these stories are to be found in her fiction, which focuses on the healing nature of the community and the struggles that her femal protagonists face as they deal with the historical past and the complexities of contemporary life.
Brodber's first novel, Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home (New Beacon Books, 1980) won critical acclaim, especially for its experimental structure. Her second novel, Myal (New Beacon Books, 1988) was awarded a Commonwealth Regional Prize for Literature. The 1994 work, Louisiana (New Beacon Books) was inspired by her work as a collector of oral histories and demonstrates her finely-honed skill at revealing and creating myths of communities. She was awarded the presitgious Musgrave Gold Award for Literature and Orature from the government of her native Jamaica. While at East Carolina University for the spring semester, Brodber taught in the Women's Studies Interdisciplinary Program and presented lectures and readings on campus and out in the community as well as conducted research on the work of Marcus Garvey in North Carolina.
