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Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper at the 6th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium held at the Atlanta University Center on March 20 under the central theme "Genderizing Political Activism." His paper, "Gender Relations and Issues in a Political Movement: Reflections of a Male Activist," drew on his experience as a member of Working People's Alliance (WPA) of Guyana while that organization was centrally involved in the Guyanese opposition movement.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper at the seventh Association of Cultural Studies (ACS) Crossroads conference held at the University of the West Indies Campus in Mona, Jamaica, July 3 - 7. His paper, "40th Anniversary of Rupture and Revolt: 1968, Guyana and the rise of the New Politics" assessed the effect of the world wide impact of 1968 on local Guyanese and 'third world' politics. It argued that fresh approaches to race relations and additional forms of protest in Guyana was influenced and affected by the global and regional (Caribbean) disturbances of 1968.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas published an op-ed in the popular online CaribWorld News (Daily Caribbean Diaspora News). The piece titled "Horror and the Response to Horror: the Guyana Situation" critiques the Guyana government's response to two brutal sets of gang killings in January and February in two communities in the South American Republic that resulted in the murder of 23 villagers including children. The reaction of the Guyana state to the murders failed, according to Westmaas, to take into account the fractured nature of the society and urged a more holistic response that addressed the political, social and criminal origins of the execution gang.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper at the 16th annual conference of the National Association of African-American Studies (NAAAS) held in Baton Rouge, La., on Feb 11-16. His paper, "The 'Quiet' Pan-Africanist: The significance, work and scholarship of Eusi Kwayana of Guyana and his impact on Pan Africanism" assesses the scope of Eusi Kwayana's pan-africanism. It evaluates why, in spite of his substantial literary, cultural and political output over time, Kwayana is scarcely accredited in pan-Africanist historiography and scholarship.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas was a guest on WRFG (Radio Free Georgia) 89.3 on "Revolutionary African Perspectives," a program hosted by Sobukwe Shukura. Shukura interviewed Westmaas on the life and career of famed Guyanese historian Walter Rodney (author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa) and his contribution to the Pan-African movement. Rodney was assassinated on June 13, 1980 but his impact on pan-Africanism and African and Caribbean political movements continue to resonate. The interview was on June 11.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas presented a paper on “1968 and the Social & Political Foundations of the Working Peoples Alliance” at the 39th annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians (ACH) held in Kingston, Jamaica, May 7-11. The paper, an examination of a political party, the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) of Guyana, assessed the emergence of new political forces in Guyana (along with regional and global influence) between 1968-1974, and established how the convergence of those forces or the ‘new politics’ culminated in the birth of the multi-racial WPA considerably changing the political equation in the South American republic.