This website is part of the project ‘Spiritual Politics in Caribbean History’, led by Diana Paton and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which ran from January 2012 to January 2013.

Diana Paton is William Robertson Professor of History at Edinburgh University. She previously worked at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University. She is the author of No Bond but the Law: Punishment, Race, and Gender in Jamaican State Formation, 1780-1870 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), and co-editor, with Pamela Scully, of Gender and Slave Emancipation in the Atlantic World (Durham: Duke University Press 2005). For her publications on obeah and Caribbean religion, please see the publications page.

Gemma Romain specialises in researching Caribbean and Black British history. She currently works as a Research Associate for The Equiano Centre, Department of Geography, UCL and also undertakes freelance historical research and public engagement. She was Vera Douie Fellow at the Women’s Library during 2011, documenting interwar Black histories within the collections of the Women’s Library and was previously Leverhulme Early Career fellowship at Newcastle University. Her publications include Connecting Histories: A Comparative Exploration of African-Caribbean and Jewish History and Memory in Modern Britain (Kegan Paul, 2006) and co-edited with David Cesarani, Jews and Ports Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce, Community and Cosmopolitanism (Vallentine Mitchell, 2006). Gemma wrote the initial drafts of most of the text on this website.

Maarit Forde worked with Diana on an earlier phase of this project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. She researched obeah prosecutions and prosecutions under the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance in the Port of Spain Gazette, co-organized the conference that led to the publication of Obeah and Other Powers, and co-edited the book. Previous research on this project has also been funded by Newcastle University and the British Academy.