Department of History and Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts

Professor
Assistant Graduate Coordinator 

Location: 353 Dollye M.E. Robinson Building
Phone: 601.979.2494
Email: lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu

CV

Degrees

Ph.D. University at Albany, State University of New York, Latin American Caribbean Studies, 2002

M.A. University at Albany, State University of New York, Latin American Caribbean Studies, 1997

B.A. University at Albany, State University of New York, Ibero-Latin American History, 1994

Research Interests

Dr. Roopnarine’s field of study is interdisciplinary, drawing on methods and concepts in history, sociology, economics and environmental science to understand labor migration, resistance, human rights, identity as well as environment policy challenges in the Caribbean. For the past fifteen years, his research has focused on the movement of Asian contract/peasant workers to the Caribbean and their plantation experience with regard to their adaptation to structural dominance.

Dr. Roopnarine’s environmental research focuses on the link between the Guyanese government, the vast interior region and economic development while his current research involves intra-regional (within the Caribbean) and extra-regional Caribbean (to North America and Europe) migration as well as social identity formation in the contemporary Caribbean. Additionally, his research examines social identity of and among East Indian, African and Hispanic Caribbean ethnic groups and is particularly interested in exploring alternative ways in analyzing social identity in the Caribbean. Specifically, he takes the position that Creole identity (Euro-African) does not apply to many Caribbean ethnic groups and has developed a bi-structural analysis of national and trans-Caribbean identities to analyze the social identity of Caribbean Asians and other ethnic groups. Dr. Roopnarine believes that identity is negotiated and shaped by geography, history, political leadership, migration and globalization which is not totally physical or permanent but also imaginative, incorporating issues of ethnicity, resistance, human rights, among other factors

Courses Taught

Jackson State University (2012 –   )

Graduate course: The History the Caribbean 530 online

World Civilization 101 HISTORICAL (also online)

World Civilization 102 MODERN (also online)

History of Colonial Latin America 327

History of Modern Latin America 328

History of the Caribbean 329

Book Publications

Indian Migration and Identity Formation in the Caribbean (forthcoming 2018, University Press of Mississippi)

Indian Indenture in the Danish West Indies, London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016.