Dr. Robert Carr (23 February 1963 – 10 May 2011) was a Trinidadian (and at the age of 40 became a dual national of Jamaica) scholar and human rights activist who dedicated his life to bringing public attention to issues related to stigma and discrimination against persons living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.
Carr wrote primarily on issues central to vulnerable communities in the Caribbean. The focus of Carr's publications was the intersectionality of poverty, homophobia, and human rights, and what he recognized as their role in producing and perpetuating systemic sexually-based violence and inadequate global, regional, and Jamaican responses to HIV/AIDS. Toronto-based International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO) established the Robert Carr Award to honour his contributions to ending AIDS.
Early life and education
Carr was born in St. James, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on Carnival Saturday. His mother, June Carr, was a school teacher, and his father, Peter Carr, was a public health official with the UN World Health Organization.
At the age of seven, Robert and his older sister, Carolyn, moved to Jamaica in April 1970 because their father accepted a position with the United Nations Pan American Health Organization. This move brought Robert in closer contact with the Jamaican side of his family. He attended Meadowbrook Primary School and in 1974 went on to Meadowbrook High School where he stayed until 1980. Still a student at Meadowbrook High School, Carr pursued a part-time course in Poetry and Play Writing at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, in Jamaica. There he not only attended classes, but wrote a play and poetry that was published in the university's official publication, Focus.
He moved to Maryland in 1981, just before his 18th birthday, to begin his post-secondary and university education. He attended Johns Hopkins University for his Bachelor's Degree in Arts and then the University of Maryland (College Park) for his Master's and Doctorate Degrees specializing in African-American Literature.
From 1988 to 1998 Carr lived in Washington DC. In 1994, he completed his Doctorate Degree in Philosophy (English).
In September 1998, his post-graduate education continued at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, where he completed a one-year Diploma in Social Work, graduating with distinction. He then returned to Jamaica and enrolled in the Master's in Social Work program at the Mona Campus of The UWI, where in 2002 he again graduated with distinction.
Career
In 1992 Carr became an Assistant Professor with the Department of English at George Mason University, where he taught until June 1997. He introduced new courses on black literature, and published numerous articles as a subaltern scholar on issues affecting developing countries.
His academic focus, however, soon shifted to social studies and social work. Before graduation from UWI in 2001, Carr became Coordinator of the Research and Development Working Group at Jamaica Network of Seropositives (JN+). Between 2002 and 2004, he was also a part-time lecturer with the UWI Mona's Faculty of Social Sciences and taught a Quantitative Research Method course. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the Coordinator of the Graduate Program's Unit at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication.
Carr went on to serve as a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights and of the nongovernmental organization delegation to the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, and "joined with other global advocates to found the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF). He acted as a panelist for numerous Congressional Briefings in Washington, D.C., worked with the LGBT Caucus and assisted with high-level meetings at the United Nations, as well as countless other global policy arenas." Towards the end of his career, he served as Policy and Advocacy Director of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations.