Senate Faculty

Summary of Expertise

Carribbean Studies, the African Diaspora, reflexivity, creative and feminist ethnography, public anthropology, performance, installation and spokenword. 

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D.,  Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Honors, Awards and Grants

Connecticut Center for the Book Award in Poetry, 2018

PEN Open Book Award, longlist, 2017

American Anthropologcal Association (AAA) Anthropology in Media Award (AIME), 2018

Haitian Studies Association (HSA) Excellence in Scholarship Award, 2015

Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Wesleyan University), 2015

College Of the Enviroment Inaugural Fellow, (Wesleyan University), 2010-2011

Ronald C. Foreman, Jr. Lecture Award for Academic Excellence and Social Responsibility. African-American Studies Program, University of Florida, 2010

Selected Publications

Books:              

Because When God Is Too Busy: Haiti, me & THE WORLD (Wesleyan University, 2017). Connecticut Center for the Book Award in Poetry, 2018; longlist, PEN America Open Book Award, 2017.

Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post Quake Chronicle. Foreword by Robin D.G. Kelley (Wesleyan University Press, 2015). 

Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importing, A Haitian Anthropologist and Self-Making in Jamaica (Chicago: University of Chicago, Women in Culture and Society Series, 2007). Honorable Mention, Gordon K. and Sibylle Lewis Book Award (Caribbean Studies Association) 2008.

Edited Collections:

Caribbean Rasanblaj. Invited Guest Editor, double issue of e-misférica--NYU’s Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics. 2015, vol 12, no 1&2, May. Online Journal. 

Pawol Fanm Sou Douz Janvye (Women’s Words on January 12th). A collection of women’s stories of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and its aftermath. Special editor and contributor In the Archives section of Meridians Journal of Feminism, Race and Transnationalism. January 2012, Introduction pp 91-98, article pp141-143.

Journal Articles, Poetry and Prose:

“An Equitable Human Assertion” in KERB #28 journal of lanscape architecture. Melbourne: MRIT, November, 2020.

“Skin Castles: Some Not so Random Notes on Performing a Taxonomy of Rages against Empire” in Special Issue: Exhibiting the Experience of Empire: Decolonizing Objects, Images, Materials and Words. Guest Editors: John Giblin, Imma Ramos and Nikki Grout. Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture. July-September 2019 no 159-160 pp 521-540.

“Ogu’s Sword and Brathwaite’s Pen,” SX Salon 2018, vol 27, February. 

“Why Rasanblaj. Why Now?: New Salutations to the Four Cardinal Points in Haitian Studies” in Journal of Haitian Studies. 2017, vol 23, no 2, pp 58-80.

“Seven Keywords for this Rasanblaj” two photographs and short essay in Anthropology Now. 2016, vol 8, no 3, pp 122-125.

“Skin Castles” (Text and Audio), Special issue on contemplation. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. Editor, Myron Beasley. 2016, vol 12, no 2.

Pwen #1,4, 7, 9, 11, 14 & 16 of “VooDooDoll: What if Haiti Were a Woman.” Transition Magazine, Special Haiti issue. Editors: Laurent Dubois and Kaiama Glover. 2013, June, issue 111, pp 104-111. 

“Labouyi Banan” Gastronomica: Journal of Food and Culture. 2013, June, vol 13, issue 2, pp 18-20.

“Why Representations of Haiti Matter Now More Than Ever” in North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). 2010, July/August, vol 43, no 4, pp 37-47.

“Papa, Patriarchy and Power: Snapshots of a Good Haitian Girl, Feminism and Dyasporic Dreams”  in Journal of Haitian Studies. 2006, vol 12, no 1, pp 24-47.

“Conquering Duppies in Kingston: Miss Tiny and Me, Fieldwork Conflicts and Being Loved and Rescued” in Anthropology and Humanism. 2002, vol 27, no 1, pp 10-26.

Book Chapters: 

“Writing Anthropology and Such or Once More with Feeling.”  In Writing Anthropology: Essays on Craft and Commitment. Editor, Carole McGranahan  Durham: Duke University Press. 2020, pp 251-256. 

“It all Started with a Black Woman: Reflective Notes on Writing/Performing Rage” in Are All the Women Still White? Rethinking Race, Expanding Feminisms. Editor, Janell Hobson. Albany: State University Press. 2016, pp 257-278.

“Going Home Again, and Again and Again: Coffee Memories, Peasant Food and the Vodou That Some of Us Do” in Geographies of the Haitian Diaspora. Regine O. Jackson, editor.  New York: Routledge. June 2011, pp. 265-280. 

Selected Presentations

 Keynotes and Plenaries:

“Rasanblaj Mobilities” Caribbean Women (Post) Diaspora: African: Caribbean Interconnections.  London South Bank University, London, England, July 12, 2018

“Critical Thoughts on Interdisciplinarity and Rasanblaj” Inaugural School of Language, Culture & Society Resident, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, April 25, 2018

“BlackLiberation Rasanblaj Redux” Fourth Annual Kamau Brathwaite Lecture, Culture Studies, The University of the West Indies-Cave Hill, Barbados, February 2, 2018.

“Why Rasanblaj, Why Now?: New Salutations  to the Four Cardinal Points in Haitian Studies” Keynote at the 29thAnnual Conference of Haitian Studies Association, Xavier University, New Orleans. LA, November 3, 2017.

“Crossings & Rasanblaj: Performing Anthropological Interventions” Inaugural Collective Visions Keynote. Departments of Anthropology and Sociology. Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA. October 26, 2017 

Sphere Presents: Performing Pedagogies of Presence. Toad Hall Amphitheater, Watkinson School, Hartford, CT. August 29, 2017

“Contemplating Absences & Distances: A Remix of the Value of Blackness” Keynote Experiences of Migration and Transformations in the Ecotones, University of Poitiers, France, June 23, 2017.

“Withering Pasts Or a Rasanblaj of Peculiarities” Second Annual Vanessa Knights Memorial Lecture, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Thyne, UK, March 16, 2017.

“i$land Re-Po$$e$$ed Re-reading Katherine Dunham in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.” Kathrine Dunham Research Showcase Keynote, King's College, London, May 18, 2016.

“Contemplating Absences and Distances: Quelles Sont les Besoins de Saint Domingue?”  George Priestly Memorial Lecture, Queens College CUNY, Flushing, NY, December 2, 2015.

“Why Haiti Needs a Higher Love VI:  Meditations on VooDooDoll.” Closing Keynote. After Revolution: Versions and Revisions of Haiti conference. University of Central Lancashire, Preston UK, July 9 – 10, 2015.

Selected Performances

 “Remixed Ode to Rebel’s Spirit, or Lyrical Meditations on A Revolutionary Legacy: Haiti and Toussaint Louverture” British Museum, London, England. March 16, 2018.

“#BlackLiberationMashup” Black Arts Movement Southern Style Because the World Needs to Change Conference at Dillard University, New Orleans, LA. September 9-11, 2016.

“VooDooDoll, What if Haiti Were a Woman: On ti Travay sou 21 Pwen or An Alter(ed)native in Something Other than Fiction.”  (10) The Voodoo curated by Lucian Gomoll. Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. June 21-28, 2014.

“Anatomy of a Wail” New York Historical Society in conjunction with the Revolutions Exhibit, January 20, 2012