UWI promotes three new academics to the rank of Professor

The three received their appointments for promotion in February to the University’s highest academic rank. Their promotions follow a rigorous assessment process including a review of their respec¬tive distinguished and original works and professional activities, as well as their contribu¬tions to the enhancement of the University’s reputation and mission ‘to advance learning, create knowledge and foster innovation for the positive transformation of the Caribbean and the world’.

Dr Corin Bailey is a sociologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the Cave Hill Campus; Professor Suzette A. Haughton is a scholar in International Relations and Security Studies, who serves as Head of the Department of Government at the Mona Campus and Dr. Lila Rao-Graham whose research interests include Business Intelligence, Knowledge Management and Data Quality, is Deputy Executive Director at the Mona School of Business and Management.

More about the new Professors

Professor Corin Bailey is a Senior Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at The UWI Cave Hill Campus, and has been with the Institute for almost fifteen years. He holds a BA in Geography from The UWI as well as a PhD in Social Geography, the latter through the Mona Campus in conjunction with the Queen Mary College, University of London.

Professor Bailey began his career with The UWI in 2005, as a Project Coordinator for the South-South Initiative. The programme was a joint effort between The UWI and the University of Cape Town, South Africa, designed to map lessons learned from crime prevention initiatives in these two active spaces.

Professor Bailey is a Sociologist, who has produced multi-disciplinary cutting-edge work on crime and violence. His body of scholarship includes one authored book, two co-authored, and one co-edited book. In addition, he has written three book chapters, seventeen refereed journal articles, one monograph, thirteen technical reports, twenty-nine papers presented at academic conferences and nine in response to invitations to present at distinguished academic meetings.

His research work targets transformation through technical assistance and policy advice, and his scholarship has received regional and international attention. Professor Bailey has been interviewed by the BBC World Service as well as regional media such as the Barbados Nation newspaper and the Jamaica Gleaner. He won the UNICEF Award for Best UNICEF Project in 2010, he was a member of the 2016 research team which won the Cave Hill Campus’ School for Graduate Studies and Research Award for Best Applied Research and he won the Principal’s 2020 Award for Excellence in Academic Research and he has earned several research grants.

Professor Bailey has supervised the theses of three students for the completion of their PhDs and one MPhil student and has examined three theses for PhD students as external examiner.

He is the current Editor of Caribbean Journal of Criminology, and has completed peer reviews for several professional journals. He currently chairs the SALISES Seminar Series and Policy Forum—one of the many public fora, seminars, conferences, symposia and other on crime and violence that he has organised.

Professor Bailey was also a member of the Cave Hill Campus committee for Institutional Accreditation and the reaccreditation steering committee. He is the current Officer in Charge of the University’s Institute of Criminal Justice and Security and a former member of the Cave Hill Board of Gender Studies.

The external assessors who reviewed Professor Bailey’s scholarship described him as impressive. The assessor added, “Dr Bailey’s research has won him accolades in the form of a 2016 Research Team Award for Best Applied Research and a 2010 UNICEF Award for Best UNICEF Project. These awards recognise the weight, value, and quality of his work… What is especially remarkable is his use of his research skills and knowledge for public service. This is manifested in his 13 technical reports written for national and international organizations and audiences, to help influence policy and for the greater public good.”

Professor Suzette A. Haughton is the Head of the Department of Government at the Mona Campus and a scholar in International Relations and Security Studies. She holds a BSc. honours degree in International Relations and an MSc. in Government (International Relations), both from The UWI and a PhD in International Relations and Security Studies from King’s College, University of London. She also earned a Post-Doctoral Certificate from the Center of Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada, and a teacher training diploma from the University of Technology, Jamaica.

She publishes research on international relations and security studies, state and citizen security, as well as on borders and border security. Her publications include one refereed book, six refereed book chapters, nine refereed journal articles, eight refereed encyclopedia articles; one scientific case study, three technical reports, including one—on Jamaica’s strategic culture—to security practitioners, the U.S. Southern Command and academics from the Applied Research Centre and the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University. Professor Haughton has also contributed to two other technical reports, fifteen academic presentations and serves as a reviewer for articles published in academic journals. She is a member of the Midwest Political Science Association.

At The UWI, Professor Haughton has developed courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels, including one on international security issues. She served on the University’s Curriculum Review Task Force, which led to the drafting of the MSc in Master in National Security and Strategic Studies report. She has supervised and examined twenty-nine masters research projects on security and international relations and is currently on the committees of two doctoral students. She has consistently received excellent lecturer and course evaluations of 4.2 and above.

In 2016, she received the Mona Campus Principal’s Award for Best Research Publication for the Faculty of Social Sciences, and in 2007, a Certificate of Fellowship from the Center of Hemispheric Defense Studies in Washington D.C. She is also a former United Kingdom Commonwealth Scholar and has been a member of the University Council of Jamaica since 2016. Currently, she serves as Deputy Chair of the Accreditation, Curriculum and Development Committee and has also served on the Audit and Institutional Accreditation Committees.

She has contributed to Global Standards, Local Knowledge Outreach programme on Jamaica ‘Varieties of Democracy’, Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame and was a Country Expert on the ‘Varieties of Democracy’ Project, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Caribbean Contributor to the Henley Passport Index, Cape Town, South Africa. She has contributed to ‘Voices of the Americas’ and the Baker Institute’s Latin American Initiative for the Americas Project, Rice University.

The External Assessors commented: “Dr. Haughton’s scholarly profile is characterised by three laudable features, which make her a worthy candidate for advancement to full Professor. The first is consistent, high-caliber research and scholarly productivity. The second is active service to her discipline and related scholarly and professional communities, and the third is her performance and promise relative to service to the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean and wider communities”.

Professor Lila Rao-Graham is Deputy Executive Director at the Mona School of Business and Management since 2014 and responsible for the oversight of the MBA and DBA Programmes.

Her qualifications include a BSc in Computer Studies from The UWI, an MSc in Mathematics in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, Canada and a PhD in Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management from The UWI.

Professor Rao-Graham’s research interests include Business Intelligence, Knowledge Management and Data Quality. She has published one co-authored refereed book, one co-edited refereed book and co-authored three chapters in this book. In addition, she has co-edited sixteen refereed journal articles; nineteen refereed conference and scientific papers; and nine papers and poster presentations at Academic conferences. She has served on editorial boards of top professional organisations and as a reviewer for several leading journals, international conferences and conference organising committees. She is also a member of the ICT Specialist Sector Committee of National Contracts Commission Jamaica, a Programme Committee Member of World Conference on Information systems and Technologies, and a member of the Ministry of Health and Wellness National COVID-19 Research Agenda Working Group.

Her expertise has also led her to be invited to present at the United Nations 2020 Big Data Forum in Trinidad and Tobago, as a panelist at the 2020 UNESCO Open Science Regional Consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean. She served as Principal Researcher on the IDRC-funded Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network project from 2015-2017, as a research team member for a 2020 International Development Research Centre project on Exploring Data Capacity Building in the Global South, and as a member of the Feasibility Study and Planning Team from 2016-2018, for a new School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, University of Guyana.

Professor Rao-Graham was recognised for her scholarship with the Best Research Publication Award from the Mona Campus Faculty of Social Sciences in 2013, the Principal’s 2015 Research Day Award for Project with the Greatest multidisciplinary and Cross Faculty Collaboration, and an International Award in 2016 for the Best White Paper, featuring Disaster Risk Management.

Her academic service at The UWI includes contributing to the Committee of DBA students; chairing dissertation defenses and acting as an external examiner. She has supervised final projects for students in the Computer-based Management Information Systems programme. She is the team leader for curriculum development and has led reviews of many programmes and organised a study abroad programme for MBA students in 2019.

One external assessors who reviewed her work concluded, “Dr Rao-Graham already has built an extensive and impressive portfolio of impactful professional activities very much in keeping with the rank of full professor… Dr Rao-Graham is an internationally known scholar who is closely identified with the research topics of business intelligence, data quality and decision support systems within the context of facilitating decision making in the organisational context… Dr Rao-Graham sets an outstanding example of a well accomplished, internationally recognized scholar.’