Maggie Griffith Williams
Maggie Williams, Ph.D. is a communication, culture, and media scholar-educator. Her research
focuses on intercultural communication, mobility, critical cultural studies, digital media, and the
Caribbean. Dr. Williams has authored and co-authored multiple articles, a book, and is a co-
founder and Secretary of the Caribbean Caucus within the National Communication
Association. She is on the editorial board of the Florida Journal of Communication and on the
editorial advisory board with the journal, Indenture Papers: Studies on Girmitiyas – an
international, interdisciplinary journal dedicated to research on the Indian and South Asian
indenture diaspora. Her most recent publication, ‘I am Trini, I am Indian, I am Hindu’: Diaspora
identity and creating culture through pichakaree, examines a Hindu-Trinidadian song genre’s
value for community members to communicate cultural identity and to challenge notions of
national culture. Dr. Williams is an experienced educator who enjoys working with student-
partners in both in-person and online learning contexts. Prior to joining the University of
Maryland, she has taught communication at Northeastern University, Ramapo College of New
Jersey, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Publications
“I am Trini, I am Indian, I am Hindu”: Diaspora identity and creating culture through pichakaree.
examines a Hindu-Trinidadian song genre’s value for community members to communicate cultural identity and to challenge notions of national culture.
Author/Lead: Maggie Griffi…
A few days before Phagwa 2019, a Hindu leader described her identity: ‘I am three parts - I am Trini, I am Indian, I am Hindu. I am equally patriotic. I have the same love and reverence for the land, but I am Indian…I am also Hindu, that's my identity.’ She explained that negotiating this trio of identities is a theme often appearing in pichakaarees, a local song form performed during Phagwa in Trinidad. Named after the instrument used to spray abeer [colored water], pichakaree songs were envisioned as a metaphor for ingesting from one’s locality and spraying it out to impress upon the audience’s minds with constructive messages. Based on interviews with pichakaree artists and organizers, as well as local intellectuals and scholars, I present preliminary analysis of pichakaaree’s value for community members, the negotiation of creating a space for the artform and recognition within national culture, and participants’ hopes and recommendations for its future.