A Mind That Lit the Room: Honouring the Life and Legacy of Professor Christopher A.D. Charles

 

It was a moment of both sorrow and solidarity — a gathering of minds, hearts, and memories to honour a man who challenged us to think deeper, to care harder, and to love boldly. On December 3, 2025, at the chapel of University of the West Indies, Mona, colleagues, friends, and loved ones came together to celebrate the life and legacy of Professor Christopher A.D. Charles — tutor, thinker, father, and friend. 

Professor Charles was remembered not just for his academic brilliance — though his mind was sharp, fearless, and unmatched — but for the warmth with which he held family, community, and principle. Speakers at the service painted a portrait of a man who refused to shy away from difficult truths, who dissected identity, politics, violence and culture with the precision of a scholar, but always with the soul of a humanist. His research in political psychology, social identity, body-modification, law, crime, sexuality, and popular culture did more than fill pages — it challenged assumptions and stirred conversation across Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. 

For his son, Yaron Charles, the morning was at once tender and heavy. In a heartfelt address, he acknowledged the pain of loss: anger, guilt, loneliness, confusion — emotions raw and real. Yet he also spoke of love, growth, and a future shaped by memory. He urged those gathered not to ask him to “move on,” but to “own the feelings” and let them guide him forward. In doing so, he invited all of us to carry a piece of his father’s spirit — not buried with the coffin, but alive in the hearts of those who remain. 

And so, the pledge made by Dr Lisa Vasciannie — to embrace Yaron as family, to stand beside him as he charts his own course — became not just a promise to a young man, but a testament to community, continuity, and care. 

Professor Charles may be gone, but in the words spoken, in the memories shared, in Yaron’s pledge to live with intention — his presence lingers. His life reminds us that scholarship and humanity are not separate paths — they are one.