The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College's (HLSCC) second Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Dr Hope K. McCoy, is a distinguished global scholar and Stanford University lecturer. Photo: HLSCC/Internet Source

Dr Hope K. McCoy's appointment at HLSCC is part of a broader strategic initiative to strengthen the College’s international profile and enhance the academic experience through innovative pedagogy (teaching methodologies). Photo: VINO/File

Dr Hope K. McCoy has been recognised for her groundbreaking work, including her first book, From Congo to GONGO: Higher Education, Critical Geopolitics, and the New Red Scare (2023), which won the Peter Lang Emerging Scholars Competition in Black Studies. Photo: Amazon

Dr Hope K. McCoy will be delivering a public lecture, on April 25, 2025—based on her award-winning book From Congo to GONGO: Higher Education, Critical Geopolitics, and the New Red Scare (2023).The public is invited. Photo: HLSCC

“The whole idea is to bring a diverse set of people together from different countries to exchange ideas and so what I bring is a variety of experiences around the world as a scholar, as an academic.”

Innovative Pedagogy

This is according to Dr McCoy, who shared during an exclusive interview with VINO that her stint at HLSCC, “As a representative of the Fulbright programme, it's a cross-cultural exchange.”

The tenure at HLSCC marks Dr McCoy’s second Fulbright grant—her first being a decade ago in Russia. She has also conducted fieldwork in Africa and Zanzibar, grounding her approach in a broad, global perspective. According to the educator, “I am a global scholar, an interdisciplinary scholar, with a focus on geopolitics and the role of culture in geopolitics.”

Her appointment at HLSCC is part of a broader strategic initiative to strengthen the College’s international profile and enhance the academic experience through innovative pedagogy (teaching methodologies). Dr Ronald Brunton, Vice President of Academic Affairs at HLSCC, had underscored the significance of her tenure, welcoming her, and expressed that “Dr McCoy’s presence at HLSCC as our second Fulbright Scholar is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and faculty to engage with global conversations in education, politics, and Black studies.”

Dr McCoy’s contributions span multiple levels of engagement and in addition to delivering a public lecture, on April 25, 2025—based on her award-winning book From Congo to GONGO: Higher Education, Critical Geopolitics, and the New Red Scare (2023)—she is also guest lecturing across the Territory in social policy and education courses and teaching sociology during the summer semester.

Mentorship Making an Impact

“For the students, they get a chance to have an instructor who's from, you know, the United States... who uses a different pedagogical style. Just because I'm coming from a different place, students have a chance to engage with a different type of instructor.”

Additionally, “I get to do a little bit of mentoring.”

Indeed, that mentorship is already making an impact. “So far, I've had students ask me about how do I find scholarships to attend colleges in the United States?”

Her presence in the Virgin Islands, she intimated, also serves to foster rich collaboration with the HLSCC faculty. “We share ideas. How do you do this in your classroom here versus how I do things in my classroom?”

Lauding her HLSCC colleagues for their openness and engagement, she shared with VINO, “I've also just had really fulfilling conversations with my colleagues. They're incredibly kind and welcoming. We've talked about things like, what do we do about AI in terms of student papers? What are your strategies for grading? Just the other day, we were exchanging ideas. One of my colleagues says he always reads student papers twice and he doesn't assign grades until the very end. I thought that was just so wonderful.”

Pan-Caribbean Thought

While Dr McCoy is still acclimatising, she reported being already immersed in the local academic and cultural fabric. “I've been here a couple of months; It's a unique culture; Many of the people here come from different parts of the Caribbean, which is really what drew me here. The BVI represents a sort of microcosm of pan-Caribbean thought.”

This dynamic Caribbean context, she said, aligns perfectly with her research interests, which delves into the sociocultural dimensions of development, education, public health, and cultural diplomacy.

Dr McCoy’s Fulbright tenure follows that of Virgin Islander Tiphanie Yanique, HLSCC’s first Fulbright Scholar in 2023. The College was included in the Fulbright Scholar Awards Programme in 2022. The Fulbright Programme, widely regarded as the flagship academic exchange initiative of the United States, facilitates global teaching and research experiences for university faculty.