Dr. Suzanne Burke
Dr. Suzanne Burke is a Lecturer in Cultural Studies attached to the Department of Literary, Communication and Cultural Studies, UWI, St. Augustine.
She was formally trained in the areas of Psychology (B.A. – York University, Canada), Development Studies (M.A. Cum Laude – ISS, Netherlands), and Sociology (PhD – Essex University, UK).
Her research focuses on Caribbean culture, carnival, cultural industries and creative entrepreneurship as these relate to the development and evaluation of cultural policies and programmes.
She has worked extensively with a wide cross section of public sector enterprises, civil society organisations and private agencies in the areas of strategic planning, policy analysis, cultural industry development and audience research within and outside of the Caribbean.
In 2014 she conducted the first Cultural Mapping Exercise of Trinidad and Tobago for the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism that is currently being used to develop programming and policy in the sector. She has also worked with a variety of state actors to formulate policies aimed at growing the creative industry sector. She has studied and written various reports on the governance, and socio-economic impact of the Trinidad Carnival Complex for at least twenty years.
Her latest research examines the efficacy of creative clustering as a strategy for developing the creative economy and fostering innovation within communities of practice in the cultural sector. This research was the focus of her award of a Commonwealth Fellowship that was completed at City University, London in 2016. This year she was part of the Technical Working Group that assisted in the formulation of the Draft National Cultural Policy of Trinidad and Tobago – Creating Pathways to Cultural Confidence.
She has supervised students at the MA, MPhil and PhD levels in a variety of research areas including festivals, creative entrepreneurship, popular culture, gender performativity in carnival and nostalgia and memory in the popular cultural domain.