Abstract
This paper is largely autobiographical: I chart my own intellectual journey across the history, culture and identity of so-called `small` islands, with a special reference to the Caribbean. To do so, I reflect on my own forays into literature that discussed Caribbean history and culture; my own research experience in Barbados in connection with my doctoral research; and coming up to the present with insights that have emerged in the pursuit of an island studies imagination in my professional work. The paper concludes with a calling, and a justification, for the pursuit of island studies.