Born in Port Antonio, Portland on January 10, 1936, Edward Baugh is the son of
Edward Percival Baugh, Purchasing Agent and Ethel Maud Duhaney-Baugh. He was Professor Emeritus of English since 1978 (retired September 30, 2001) as well as Public Orator since 1985. Baugh is also a poet and an actor.

Baugh was educated at Titchfield High School in Portland. After completing his secondary education, he won a Jamaican Government Exhibition to the University College of the West Indies and read English. He then won a R. S. McLaughlin Fellowship to do postgraduate studies at Queens University in Ontario, Canada and a Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of Manchester, England where he obtained a Ph.D in English in 1964.

He taught at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies for three years (1965-1967) and at the Mona Campus for over thirty three years (1968-2001). He has also held visiting appointments at the University of California, Dalhousie University, University of Hull, University of Wollongong, Flinders University, Macquarie University, University of Miami and Howard University.

Edward Baugh has a distinguished record of academic, administrative and public service, some of which include Head of Department of English, and Dean and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and General Studies (now Humanities and Education). He has also adjudicated regional and international literary competitions and prizes such as the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Guyana Prize for Literature.

Baugh is a prolific writer and has a long list of publications to his credit. This include, “It was the Singing” (2000), “I was a Teacher too” (1991), “A Tale from the Rainforest” (1988), “Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision” (1978), “Critics on Caribbean Literature” (1978) and “West Indian Poetry 1900-1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation” (1971).

Baugh has had an exemplary career as a superb and inspiring teacher and intellectual mentor whose generosity and rigorous expectations shaped several generations of Caribbean literary scholars.

Awards

• Gold Musgrave Medal, Institute of Jamaica 2012
• Pelican Award (U.W.I. Guild of Graduates) 1999
• Silver Musgrave Medal, Institute of Jamaica 1998
• U.W.I. Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Administration 1995