UWI economist, legal scholar, leadership expert, and dental specialists promoted to Professors

The Office of Administration at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is pleased to announce the promotion of five members of staff to Professors, the highest academic rank at the institution. Among the cohort are an economist, a legal scholar, an educational policy and leadership expert, and two dental specialists.

The five are Professor Roger Hosein, a scholar in International Trade, International Economics and Economic Integration, and Professor William A. J. Smith, current Director of the School of Dentistry, both from the St. Augustine Campus, Professor Tracy Robinson, a legal scholar in the Faculty of Law at the Mona Campus, Professor Canute Thompson, Head of the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning (CCEP), and Professor Arvind Babu Rajendra-Santosh, a Dental Surgeon, also from the Mona Campus.

The new Professors earned their promotions following a rigorous assessment process by independent external assessors which included evaluation of the quality and quantity of their research, publications and other professional activities, including their contributions to the enhancement of the University’s reputation. The promotions took effect in October 2022.

More about the new Professors

Professor Roger Hosein
Professor Roger Hosein, a scholar in International Trade, International Economics and Economic Integration was a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the St. Augustine Campus of The UWI, for over a decade, prior to his appointment.

He holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Cambridge, as well as a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degree (with first class honours) from The UWI, St. Augustine.

Professor Hosein’s research interests include Regional Economic and Trade Integration, The Resource Curse/Dutch Disease, Natural Trading Partner, Revealed Comparative Advantage and Regional Industrial Policy. His publications include two independently authored books, six others co-authored (three of which are used as text books), 55 articles in refereed journals, 18 book chapters as well as 70 papers presented at conferences and seminars, and he has given over 150 media interviews.

He joined the St. Augustine Campus as a Lecturer in 2000, was promoted to a Lecturer with Tenure in 2007, and then to Senior Lecturer in 2009. At the Department of Economics, Professor Hosein held the position of Graduate Research Programme Coordinator since 2013, Representative for Undergraduate Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and also served as an Assessor for Masters Projects and Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy Seminars. He has supervised six Doctor of Philosophy students and over 40 Masters students in addition to two International MBA students from the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business.

He was among The UWI’s prominent 60 academic researchers featured in its 60th Anniversary publication “60 under 60”.

Professor Hosein has represented The UWI at meetings of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) 2015 hemispheric meeting in Peru. He was appointed Commissioner to CARICOM from 2016 to 2018 and served as a Board Member of the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB’s) Civil Society Consulting Group from 2012 to 2017. He formed the Trade and Economic Development Unit (TEDU) at The UWI in 2011 and is also the Founder/Director of the Sustainable Unemployment Reduction Efforts (SURE) Foundation.

As an eminent Trade Specialist, Professor Hosein has received research consultancy funding from organisations such as World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, CARICOM, Pan American Health Organisation and multinational petroleum-based companies.

One of the external assessors, having reviewed his work noted “Dr. Hosein is a scholar in international trade, international economics and economic integration with a particular focus on the Caribbean region. He can be described as one of the key economic scholars in this field…Overall, I highly commend Dr. Hosein’s research activity. The research is original, of high quality and speaks to important international policy issues.”

Professor William A. J. Smith
Professor William A. J. Smith is the current Director of the School of Dentistry in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the St Augustine Campus. Before he was appointed Professor, he was a Senior Lecturer in Conservative Dentistry at the Campus.

He qualified as a Dental Surgeon (with honours) in 1994 and was among the first graduating class of dentists from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The UWI, St. Augustine. He holds a Master of Science (with distinction) in Conservative Dentistry from the University of London, Eastman Dental Institute, an Executive Master of Business Administration (also with distinction) from the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, and a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of the Pacific, USA.

During his 23 years with The UWI, he has contributed to numerous quality improvements in the delivery of the undergraduate programme at the St. Augustine Campus’ School of Dentistry, including the development and implementation of the current Doctor of Dental Surgery curriculum. As Director, he strengthened the operational, business and management systems to better facilitate the School’s delivery on its objectives of teaching, research, clinical services and outreach. His efforts contributed to the School being awarded full accreditation status with the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) in 2019. He also served as a Regional Accreditor on behalf of CAAM-HP, and later reviewed the accreditation standards for other dental programmes for the Caribbean. He serves on numerous University committees and has served on the Dental Council of Trinidad & Tobago, the Board of CAAM-HP and lectured to local and regional dental associations on restorative dentistry.

Professor Smith has 31 published research papers, is a reviewer for two international dental journals and has presented his research at local and international conferences, which is focused primarily on the damage to teeth caused by tooth wear and the repair of this damage with currently available dental materials. He also researched and incorporated video technology to improve the teaching of hand skills of dental undergraduate students.

One of Professor Smith’s External Assessors concluded, “From my knowledge of his research excellence in dentistry at The University of the West Indies, I understand that Dr. Smith is distinguished in his output and enthusiasm for research and evidence-based practice.”

Professor Tracy Robinson
Professor Robinson’s interdisciplinary work spans the areas of constitutional law, family law, human rights, and gender, sexuality and the law. She has worked at both the Cave Hill and Mona campuses. Before her promotion, she served as a Senior Lecturer as well as Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Law, Mona. She earned her LLB degree from The UWI, completed the two-year Bachelor of Civil Law, a distinctive graduate degree from Oxford University and received an LLM from Yale Law School.

She has established herself as a significant scholar of the legal regulation of gender, sexualities and family in the Anglo-Caribbean. Her research in this area has been re-published, including in a prominent US casebook. Her constitutional law scholarship is published in the leading law journals, Modern Law Review and Oxford Journal of Legal Studies; and her co-authored book, Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law is in its second edition and is cited regularly in landmark constitutional law decisions by Caribbean courts, including the CCJ and Privy Council. She has co-edited another book and authored and co-authored 10 book chapters, 19 refereed journal articles, and many technical reports and non-refereed academic publications.

Professor Robinson has been invited to visit leading law schools in the hemisphere, including University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School as a Bok Visiting International Professor, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty, and University of Puerto Rico Law School.

She has served on several international expert bodies. She was a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2012-2015) and served as the Commission’s President. In 2020, she was appointed as one of three experts on the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya. She was a Commissioner on the PAHO/WHO Independent Review of Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas and is currently a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People. She has served on the boards of several human rights-related international NGOs, including the Governing Council of International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the subcommittees that oversaw recent governance reform of this large charity.

In 2017, she was named as one of the honourees of the Gender Justice Legacy Wall and she was also named the 2019 Prominent Woman in International Law Award by the American Society of International Law.

She co-founded and co-coordinates the Faculty of Law UWI Rights Advocacy Project, which has undertaken widely recognised human rights strategic litigation, socio-legal research and public and legal education in the Caribbean. She chairs the Editorial Committee of the UWI Press and has served on several University and Campus committees, including Senate, F&GPC, Academic Board Cave Hill and Mona, and Mona Campus Council.

One of her External Assessors observed, “Ms. Robinson writes with insight and verve. She has produced a distinctive body of original and excellent scholarship on Caribbean constitutional law, Caribbean feminist approaches to law and post-colonial Caribbean legality. The quality and depth of Ms. Robinson’s work are of the highest standard. I have no hesitation in assessing her work as clearly meeting and surpassing the standard for promotion to full professor at a leading common law university.”

 
Professor Canute Thompson
Professor Canute Thompson lectures in educational policy, planning and leadership at the Mona Campus and serves as Head of the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning (CCEP). He is a leadership coach and certified management consultant who specialises in Educational Planning and Policy, Leadership and Management.

Professor Thompson holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree with high commendation in Educational Administration and Leadership and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from The UWI, a Master of Arts (with honours) from the Eden Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts (with honours) from The UWI. He also earned a Certificate in Educational Sector Planning from the International Institute for Educational Planning; and a Management Consultant International Certificate from the Council of Management Consulting Institutes.

He has published six single-authored books, one co-authored monograph, nine single-authored and eight co-authored journal articles, four co-authored book chapters, and one co-edited book. Regionally and internationally, he has also delivered over a dozen special presentations and has had over 200 newspaper articles published.

Throughout his academic service, Professor Thompson has supervised 25 Masters of Education students, he has developed 14 new courses and co-developed two for the School of Education and another two for the Department of Government at the Mona Campus. He also spearheaded the founding of the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning and the Caribbean Leadership Re-Imagination Initiative.

Professor Thompson has earned several awards. Among them, are a Principal’s Award for Best Publication (Article Category) in 2019 and he was also awarded the Most Outstanding Thesis for the School of Education and the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence for the 2008 Academic year. His latest achievement is a bronze medal in the Independent Publishers’ Book Awards, which he won in 2022, for his 2020 book, Education and Development: Policy Imperatives for Jamaica and the Caribbean. His 2019 book, Reimagining Educational Leadership in the Caribbean, was voted Best Publication in the Mona Campus Principal’s Awards for Excellence.

He co-chaired the Vice-Chancellor’s Re-Imagining UWI 2020-2021 Committee and is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Society for Educational Planning, the Caribbean Journal of Mixed Methods Research and the Journal of Human Resource Management. He is the founding President of the Jamaica Chapter, Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants, a former Ministry of Education Representative on the University Council of Jamaica, a former Chair of the Advisory Board of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) and a former Board Member of the Council of Community Colleges in Jamaica. His international affiliations include membership in the American Educational Research Association, the International Society of Educational Planning, and the Philosophy of Education Society of North America.

One of Professor Thompson’s assessors commented, “He writes on a variety of scholarly topics, reflecting a dynamic intellect, an impressive command of the literature across a range of topics, and the ability to provide unique insights on issues that matter in the field of education…his work embodies the ethic of an institution of higher education defined by its commitment to teaching, research and service.”

Professor Arvind Babu Rajendra Santosh
A dental educator, researcher, dental surgeon and specialist in oral and maxillofacial pathology, Professor Arvind Babu Rajendra Santosh lectures at the School of Dentistry at the Mona Campus and is one of the early faculty members who joined the school when it opened in 2010. He was appointed as full-time lecturer in 2013.

Professor Rajendra Santosh recently completed a Fellowship in Forensic Odontology and holds a Master of Dental Surgery in Oral Pathology, Microbiology, a Diploma in Forensic Sciences and Forensic Odontology, and a Bachelor’s of Dental Surgery.

His research interests in the field include oral disease, oral microbiology, HIV infection, oral cancer, oral diagnosis, dental education and oral epidemiology. He has published a significant body of original, scholarly independent and collaborative works on the diagnostic aspects of odontogenic, oral and dental health. These include 77 peer-reviewed journal articles, three books, one book chapter, 17 papers, 14 posters, 12 invited presentations and three reports.

At The UWI, Professor Rajendra Santosh has contributed to the development of the Mona Campus’ postgraduate programme in Periodontology and Implant Dentistry. He serves as the Department’s Research Coordinator and also coordinates the Forensic Dentistry course. He has been a member of the School’s Admission and Selection Committees since 2017, and from 2018, the Academic Quality Assurance, Tracking and Assessment Committees. In addition, he coordinates four courses in Dental School. He lectures in six courses at the School of Dentistry and one course in MBBS programme. Since 2015, he has conducted clinical duties at the Mona Dental Polyclinic, supervises one student from Master of Science in Biomedical Research and mentored students in a programme of the International Association for Dental Research.

Professor Rajendra Santosh is one of the founding members of the International Association of Dental Research—Caribbean Section (IADR-CS), and currently serving as a President of IADR-CS and Vice President of Caribbean Oral Health Initiative and a current member of many international associations. He also serves as a Peer Reviewer for seven scientific journals, Editor of the IADR-CS newsletter, and Associate Editor of Frontiers in Oral Health, associate editor of Journal of Indian Dental Association, section editor (Oral Pathology) of European Journal of Dentistry. He is a recipient of a Grant Writing Workshop Study and Travel Grant from the National Institute of Health, USA.

Professor Rajendra-Santosh is the current Scientific Chair of the 2nd International Congress of IADR-CS in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and a member of the Regional Development and the William G Awards Committee of the International Association for Dental Research.

One of Professor Rajendra Santosh’s assessors commented, “I am impressed with and surprised by the extent and variety of his research and publication accomplishments…Dr. Santosh’s record speaks for itself. In fact, I would go so far as to say that some of his topic reviews have been amongst the best available.”