2010 Undergraduate Student Paper Prize

The 2010 SUNTA Undergraduate Student Prize is awarded to Adom Philogene-Heron of the University of Sussex (who was nominated by Dr. Jon P. Mitchell) for “Taming the Spider Man: From Anti-Colonial Hero to Neoliberal Icon.”

“Taming the Spider Man” is a fascinating account of the popular representation of Anancy the Spider Man in the modern-day Caribbean and its diaspora. Anancy is a Creole Caribbean folk-tale hero whose antics have for centuries embodied a subaltern anti-colonial ethic. The essay analyzes the association of Anancy first with the ‘reputation’ orientated informal economic activities of market ‘higglers’, ‘hucksters’, ‘hustlers’ and ‘middlemen’ in decades past and then, under more recent neoliberal conditions, with private microfinance initiatives. The essay shows how these initiatives indebt and discipline those that they purport to help. In this