Simone A. James Alexander is Professor of English, Africana Studies and Women and Gender Studies, affiliate member of the Russian and East European Studies Program and Latin America and Latino/Latina Studies at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. She served as Chair of the Department of Africana Studies in 2007-2010 and Director of the Africana Studies program in 2014-2019. Alexander is the author of the award-winning book, African Diasporic Women's Narratives: Politics of Resistance, Survival and Citizenship (University Press of Florida, 2014; reprinted in May 2016), which also received Honorable Mention by the African Literature Association Book of the Year Scholarship Award. She is the recipient of the Researcher of the Year Award for African Diasporic Women's Narratives: Politics of Resistance, Survival and Citizenship. Alexander is also the author of Mother Imagery in the Novels of Afro-Caribbean Women (University of Missouri Press, 2001) and coeditor of Feminist and Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Mothering (Africa World Press, 2013). Her articles appeared in African American Review, MLA Approaches to Teaching Gaines's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Other Work, Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies, African Literature Today, Anglistica:An Interdisciplinary Journal, New Mango Season: A Journal of Caribbean Women's Writing, Revista Review InterAmericana, African Literature Association Bulletin, and edited collections. Her current book projects include Black Freedom in (Communist) Russia: Great Expectations, Utopian Visions and Bodies of (In)Difference: Gender, Sexuality, and Nationhood.

Leslie M. Alexander is the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of History at Rutgers University. A specialist in early African American and African Diaspora history, she is the author of African or American?: Black Identity and Political Activism in New York City, 1784-1861 and the co-editor of three additional volumes. Her newest book, Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States, examines how the Haitian Revolution and the emergence of Haiti as a sovereign Black nation inspired the birth of Black internationalist consciousness in the United States. Her current project, "How We Got Here: Slavery and the Making of the Modern Police State," examines how surveillance of free and enslaved Black communities in the colonial and antebellum eras laid the foundation for modern-day policing. A portion of that research appears in The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. A three-time Ford Foundation fellowship recipient, Alexander is the immediate Past President of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) and serves on the Advisory Councils for the National Council for Black Studies, the Journal of African American History, Black Perspectives, The Black Scholar, and the Montpelier Foundation Board.

I studied French in my undergraduate program due to my fascination with the Franco-Caribbean world. This interest has included me travelling to Haiti on five different occasions, and I hope to return many times in the future. As a historian, my goal is to continue studies in the lasting impacts of decolonization in Haiti, particularly related to the French and Creole languages. Also, my studies include research into Christian history within Haiti, and the diversity of the religion within the country.

Samantha Barnes, a junior double majoring in Peace & Conflict Studies and Political Science, studies ethnology, latinidad, and africana studies. During the summer of 2020, she researched a core group of Black feminist women who birthed the Négritude Movement, a French literary and social movement developed in the 1930s. She will continue to expand this research to explore how this movement is comparable to the Harlem Renaissance in the U.S and Negrísmo in Latin America as well as how multiculturalism and colonialism influence the Black female identity around the world. Outside of academics, Samantha has studied French and Spanish, is on the Swarthmore women's soccer team, and volunteers with Design FC, an afterschool program at Stetser Elementary in Chester, Pa. that encourages creative design thinking and self expression for 5th and 6th graders.

Dr. Eurydice Bouchereau Bauer is the John E. Swearingen Chair of Education and Professor in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina. Sh earned her Bachelor's and Master's degree from the University of Iowa, and doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on understanding fundamental factors that shape language and literacy among bilinguals, the context and practices affecting bilingualism including experiences of Latino and African-American students in dual language programs, and the intersection of race and language in becoming bilingual. Dr. Bauer serves as editor of the Literacy Research Association's Journal of Literacy Research where she recently published the Special Issue, "Black Lives Matter in Literacy Research." She hosts a bi-annual Bilingualism Matters conference at the University of South Carolina and her research is published in journals such as the Research in the Teaching of English, Teachers College Record, International Journal of Bilingualism, The Urban Review, Language Arts and The Reading Teacher.

LeGrace Benson holds an interdisciplinary PHD from Cornell University (1974; was an Associate Professor of History of Art at Cornell University, subsequently at Wells College, where she also became Associate Dean for Special Programs for Women. She was named Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the Albany Center of Empire State College-SUNY, subsequently Coordinator of Communications and Humanities in the ESC Distance Learning Center. In 1991 she took early retirement in order to devote full time to Haitian Studies Creating the Arts of Haiti Research Project with an extensive library of relevant publications open to other scholars. She served several terms on the HSA Board and has been Associate Editor of the Journal of Haitian Studies since the journal began. In 2016 she served as President of HSA. She is also a member of KOSANBA, served on the Board and as President in 2017. She is the author of _Arts and Religions of Haiti_ 2017 and co-author of _Citadelle Henry; The Passion for Liberty_, 2020 as well as numerous articles and chapters.

My research and teaching focus on the intersections of race and gender in American and transnational contexts. I teach courses in African American, Women's, Caribbean, Multiethnic, and Postcolonial literatures and cultural studies; film studies; and critical race theory. I've led three groups of students on global service-learning courses to Jamaica and Trinidad and have presented research on how to make such courses more accessible for underrepresented students. My family has a long association with Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, Haiti. I aim to help students discover how they can contribute to their communities and national conversations on race, gender, sex, human rights, and social justice.

See Bio which I sent in to Dr. Claudine Michel for information below.

Dr. Karen Biraimah is a tenured Professor of Comparative Education and Coordinator of the M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and International Programs in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida. Previously she was a member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Ife, Nigeria and served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Malaya, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya and the University of Namibia, Windhoek. Prior to these higher education experiences Prof. Biraimah served as a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in Takoradi, Ghana, and later as a social studies and math teacher in the public schools of Detroit, Michigan and Niagara Fall, New York. Her academic and research interests focus on issues of educational equity based on factors of race, ethnicity, class and gender within the context of comparative and international education. She holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education, two masters' degrees in Educational Foundations and African Area Studies, and a bachelor's degree in International Studies. She is Past-President of the Comparative and International Education Society, and currently serves as the Chair of the Special Projects Standing Committee of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies.

Born in Haiti, with its complex and fascinating culture and history, my roots reflect the combination of Caribbean, African, Latin and European cultures found on that island. At the age of five, I immigrated to the United States and Brooklyn has since been my home. Currently, I am a Gates Millennium Scholar studying as a graduate student in Cornell University's Department of Natural Resources. My areas of interest are in community-based agroforestry programs and their impact on poor rural communities in developing countries. My hope is to move back to Haiti after completing my PhD in hopes of working with local NGOs and agencies before entering government after some time in the environment and rural development sectors.