Presenting a wide range of perspectives and approaches, this book grew out of presentations at two groundbreaking events on the Jamaican campus of the University of the West Indies: a symposium discussing LGBTQ experiences and research in Jamaica, and a conference that expanded the focus to provide a regional scope. Activists, artists and academics came together to challenge and change the narratives about LGBTQ issues in the Caribbean, exploring sexualities, gender identities and queer practices beyond the discourse of violence, as well as the stereotypes, assumptions and limitations presented by conventional norms around gender and sexuality.

Beyond Homophobia combines a variety of academic disciplines with poetry and prose. Its contributions move from cyberspace to the dancehall, from literary analysis to ethnographic research, from pedagogical to methodological concerns, and from thoughts on the past to ideas about the future. The collection presents a range of perspectives on and techniques with which to interrogate notions of identity, sexualities, victimhood, agency, activism, fluidity, fixity, visibility, invisibility, class, homophobia, coming out, belonging and spirituality.

By illuminating the lives, experiences, and research of and about the queer anglophone Caribbean, this volume represents a concerted attempt to move Beyond Homophobia.

Health Communication in the Caribbean and Beyond provides a comprehensive, well-researched and up-to-date discussion of the local and international health communication literature and provides a theoretical and practical framework for teaching health and/or medical communication skills. It reviews, explains and applies health communication concepts and principles and provides contexts for their application in both the classroom and in the health professions.

In part 1, the contributors provide a context for health communication skills, education and training in the Caribbean. They cite experiences ranging from the development of an innovative communication skills programme, gender differences in delivering bad news, cultural differences between Western models of nonverbal communication and Caribbean contexts of learning, and the efforts to develop clinical communication skills in an academic setting.

In part 2, the contributors address the theme of patient care and counselling from multiple perspectives, including exploring the psychological dimension of health communication through patient care and interventions, developing an approach to psychosocial factors and communication skills that influence adherence, considering the challenges in adopting a multicultural perspective, and illuminating how interdisciplinary health teams provide medical and dental support and communication to villagers. Collectively they cast new light on patient provider communication and provide contrasting insights into issues of privacy and openness, tolerance and empathy.

In part 3, the contributors focus on mediated channels of health communication at both interpersonal and mass communication levels. They examine Internet communication technologies to enhance health communication, the novel prospect of STD partner notification through e-mail and the ethical challenges inherent in such approaches, and surveys to assess the impact of mass communication in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

In part 4, the contributors analyse the effectiveness of campaigns and practices in health communication. They explore how the role of religiosity in communicating on social and behavioural change and strategies developed from decades of clinical practice and health communication activities.