Connie Sutton was a role model and inspiration to me as a thinker, scholar activist, as a person with a strong sense of ethics who practiced what she believed, and as my friend. Connie chaired my dissertation committee, although I didn’t meet her until my last semester as a PhD student at NYU when she came to teach downtown from the Heights. She was a breath of fresh air: she had a political analysis and strong comparative perspective and she thought globally, making the Caribbean not only an exciting cultural world but also the jumping off place for understanding histories of global capitalism. Connie was generous, generous, generous … generations of Caribbean students, scholars and activists were welcomed at her kitchen table and in her home, as were others who shared her interests and commitments. Connie willingly shared her professional and scholarly contacts, delighted in connecting her diverse networks, and continued to support her former students far into the future. I was one of the beneficiaries of her largesse. She and I shared our joint interest in women’s international collective action and organized several scholarly sessions on the topic together, but she introduced me to leaders of the World Conferences on Women in Nairobi and Beijing, who invited me to consult with them. She also introduced me to my collaborators on transnationalism, a topic she had begun to explore.
The outpouring of expressions of sadness and appreciation from scholars and activists across the country but also from diverse corners of the Caribbean show the depth of Connie’s impact on so many. I miss you, Connie, but your spirit, energy, wise analyses and scholarship live on for me in myriad ways.
—Linda Basch, PhD (NYU)