Recent Caribbean Studies mailbase messages on health have galvanised me to
introduce myself.  I am a sociologist working on Caribbean health issues.
>From 1991-94 I worked as Research Fellow at the Institute of Social and
Economic Research, University of the West Indies, Barbados on a project on
women's reproductive health.  I then did my PhD at University of Warwick,
Power, Identity and Eurocentrism in Health Promotion: the Case of Trinidad
and Tobago (awarded 1999).  I am now working as Behavioural Sciences
Advisor, Special Programme on Sexually Transmitted Infections, Caribbean
Epidemiology Centre, Port of Spain.  I have been to a few SCS meetings and
presented papers - hello to anyone who knows me.

I have a wide range of interests around Caribbean health issues, including:
*	Health promotion and community mobilisation strategies to prevent
the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases
*	Research on sexual and health care seeking practices, with a view to
the design of effective sexual health promotion strategies
*	Historical interdependencies in health and health practices between
the Caribbean and other parts of the world.  My PhD and current research
explore how colonial and neo-colonial processes have affected health status,
policies, practices and interpretations in the Caribbean, and, conversely,
how health and health policy in the core of the world-economy have been
affected by the exploitation of colonies.  Through this I hope to contribute
to debates about links between globalisation, health and development.
*	Social research methodologies appropriate for the study of health in
the Caribbean
*	Health, representation and the body.   How, for example, are the
bodies of Caribbean people represented in the media, particularly with
regard to images of health and fitness?  How do these images relate to
hegemonies of gender, 'race' and class?  More broadly, how do health-related
practices such as diet and exercise relate to social identities?

My publications on health in the Caribbean include the following:


'Social Science Approaches to Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the
Caribbean'.  In: G.D. Howe and A. Cobley, eds., The Caribbean AIDS Epidemic,
The Press, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, 2000.

HIV and Youth in Tobago: Silence and Secrecy in a Small Island, presented at
the International AIDS Conference, 'Breaking the Silence', Durban, South
Africa, 9-14 July, 2000. (Authors C. Allen, K. McLetchie, P. Russell-Brown,
D. Da Costa Martinez, H. Wagner, A. De Gazon Washington and T.Chapman Smith)

'Caribbean Bodies: Representation and Practice'. In: C. Barrow, ed.,
Caribbean Portraits: Essays on Gender Ideologies and Identities, Ian Randle
Press, Kingston, Jamaica: 276-93, 1998.

'Gender, Mortality, AIDS and Development: a Comparison between the
Commonwealth Caribbean and Other Regions', Global Development Studies, 1-2,
Winter-Spring 1998: 11-66.

'Health Promotion, Fitness and Bodies in a Postcolonial Context: the Case of
Trinidad', Critical Public Health, 8, 1, 1998: 73-92.

'Community Development for Health and Identity Politics', Ethnicity and
Health, 3 (2): 239-52, 1997.

'Researching Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the Caribbean', in E.
Leo-Rhynie, B. Bailey and C. Barrow, eds. Gender: a Caribbean
Multi-Disciplinary Perspective, James Currey, Oxford, UK and Ian Randle
Press, Kingston, Jamaica: 259-76, 1997.

'Women, Health and Development: the Commonwealth Caribbean', in C.
Lopez-Springfield, ed. Daughters of Caliban: Caribbean Women in the
Twentieth Century, Latin America Bureau, London, UK and Indiana University
Press, Bloomington, USA: 171-212, 1997.

I'd be very pleased to correspond with people interested in any of these
issues.  You can contact me via email at [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask]	

Best regards,

Caroline Allen





Caroline Allen, MA, PhD
Behavioural Science Advisor
Caribbean Epidemiology Centre/ German Technical Cooperation (CAREC/GTZ) AIDS
Project
Special Programme on Sexually Transmitted Infections (SPSTI)
CAREC
P.O. Box 164/ 16-18 Jamaica Boulevard
Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Tel: (868) 622 2153/ 622 5593
Fax: (868) 622 2792



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