Elegance and Knowledge: Cooper’ s sophisticated elegance fuses with her scholarship of Brand Reggae, Jamaican culture, Cultural and Literary Theories. Coinciding with the Grand Opening of the International Reggae Poster competition, Professor Carolyn Cooper will lecture and sign her book about the Global Impact of Reggae.

Critics are right “The Reggae Wave has arrived”. The resurgence of Roots Rock Reggae worldwide is right on time. It will be a night of celebrating brand reggae and the cultural impact it has on the world. ‘The globalization of reggae music and its wild child Dancehall affirms the far-reaching creativity of the Jamaican people. We are small-islanders with ancestral memories of vast continents of origin’. Cooper said. The Miami Reggae Festival is privileged to have her support for the 2013 edition.

Carolyn Cooper is a Caribbean author, professor, and literary scholar. Her academic approach is grounded in critical theory. Born in Jamaica, Dr. Cooper currently heads the department of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. For more than 26 years she has lectured at the University of the West Indies, Department of Literature and English. Carolyn Joy Cooper was born in 1950 in Kingston, Jamaica, to parents who were involved in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In 1968 she was awarded the Jamaica Scholarship, which three years later culminated with her receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (B.A. English). In 1972 she proceeded to the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to pursue her Master’s degree in English, which was followed by the completion of her PhD. at the same institution.

She is professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica and instrumental in establishing in 1994 the university’s Reggae Studies Unit, where numerous conferences on the music have been convened, including in 2008 the Global Reggae Conference from which the book emerged. Professor Cooper is also editor of Bob Marley: The Man and His Music (2003). Among her books are Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the Vulgar Body of Jamaican Popular Culture (1993) and Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large (2004). Cooper is a weekly columnist for the Sunday Gleaner and hosts a television show for the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.

Professor Carolyn Cooper was awarded the national honor of the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander for outstanding contribution to Education.