CEREP (Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Etudes Postcoloniales – Centre for Teaching and Research in Postcolonial Studies) was founded at the University of Liège by Professor Hena Maes-Jelinek, a pioneer in the study of Caribbean and Australian literatures, in 1968. The centre was first created under the acronym CEREC – where the second 'C' stood for 'Commonwealth' – before it was relaunched as a research unit with a more strongly postcolonial focus in 2006.
The centre was one of the first in Europe devoted to what used to be known as "Commonwealth studies" and it has, for over fifty years now, regularly organized conferences, lectures, and seminars, as well as engaged in teaching and research activities at the University of Liège in Belgium and beyond.
