A Bermudian scholar will be presenting an important piece of local history at a prestigious Harvard University seminar next week.

Clarence Maxwell is a doctoral candidate at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England.

He has been invited to participate and present his work along with 37 other scholars at the International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World.

The seminar begins on Monday, August 10 and participants will meet and discuss research through Friday, August 21.

Participants will have all expenses paid and will have access to the Harvard libraries during their stay.

Mr. Maxwell's current research at Warwick focuses on resistance strategies used by people of African descent during the last 134 years of slavery in Bermuda.

He explained that Bermuda's history was important to the seminar for providing an important piece of the puzzle regarding early cultural exchanges in the Atlantic world.

"Bermuda's early colonial history is important for the ways in which issues of slavery and race are dealt with. In some ways, it forms a template for the other later Anglo-Saxon colonies,'' he said. Mr. Maxwell, a Berkeleyite, graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language from Saint Leo College in Florida in 1985.

He later received a second Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Keele in the UK.

And Mr. Maxwell received a Master of Arts degree in Historical Research from the University of Hull.

His dissertation, entitled "The Migration of West Indies, 1895-1905'', examined population movements to Bermuda within the context of the declining sugar industry.

Mr. Maxwell is presently studying under the supervision of Dr. Gad Heuman, head of the Department of History and Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick.

His non-academic interests include martial arts and recreational reading.