On Wednesday, June 18 at 6:15, join us for a riveting discussion between the University of Chicago's Dr Ryan Cecil Jobson and the LBI's own Sariyah Mohammed. Together, they'll discuss Jobson's book The Petro-state Masquerade: Oil, Sovereignty, and Power in Trinidad and Tobago.

A historical anthropologist, Jobson demonstrates how fossil fuels and political power converged over more than a century of commercial oil and gas production in T&T. While the Trinbagonian petro-state rests on a “masquerade of permanence,” in which state actors represent the nation as an interminable reserve of hydrocarbons, Jobson alerts us to the concurrent masquerades of oilfield workers, activists, and Carnival revelers as the foundation of a new society.

Sariyah Mohammed is an archivist at the Lloyd Best Institute of the Caribbean. Her 2025 Pierrot Grenade mas, Parrot on Petrol — part of Berkeley Carnival Revolution’s 2025 presentation, "Swell-Headed Com-Unit-Tea" — explored the impacts of oil and gas on the national psyche, drawing inspiration from Jobson's work. Together, Mohammed and Jobson will engage in dialogue on the dynamic histories of oil and insurgency, power and mas in Trinidad and Tobago.

This event will take place at the Lloyd Best Institute of the Caribbean, 91C Tunapuna Road, Tunapuna, and is presented in collaboration with Bocas Lit Fest and Paper Based. See you there!