Professors Petrouchka Moïse and Fredo Rivera Secure $350K Grant for “Haitian Art Digital Crossroads” Project

Petrouchka Moïse, assistant professor and Cultural & Community-based Digital Curator in the Grinnell College Libraries, and Fredo Rivera ’06, assistant professor of Art History, have been awarded a $350,000 grant from the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will support their project, “Haitian Art Digital Crossroads,” which aims to digitize over a thousand Haitian artworks held at several sites in Haiti and the United States and incorporate them into a multilingual database.
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to share the richness and diversity of Haitian art with a wider audience and to make it accessible to scholars and researchers around the world,” said Moïse.

Video games, food and ‘aha’ moments make this Cal State San Marcos professor one of the best

Alyssa Sepinwall was named the best teacher in the CSU system for getting students to grasp how their lives have been shaped by events that occurred long ago and far away.

Religion Prof Receives Fellowship to Help Preserve Vodou Temple

Professor of Religion Elizabeth McAlister is working alongside colleagues in Haiti to help preserve the precious art and sacred objects at one particular temple. To support her efforts, McAlister has recently been named a 2023 Crossroads Research Fellow by Princeton University. The Crossroads Project “responds to challenges that call for deeper public understanding of and scholarly engagement with Black religious histories and cultures,” according to its website.

HSA Congratulates Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall

HSA Congratulates Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall!
Cal State San Marcos history professor Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall has been honored with the most prestigious award that faculty can receive in the California State University system.
Sepinwall was announced Tuesday as one of five winners of the Wang Family Excellence Award. Each year, the CSU recognizes four faculty and one staff member for their “unwavering commitment to student achievement and advancing the CSU mission through excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.”

Louisiana State University Alumni Spotlight: Petrouchka Moïse

Dr. Petrouchka Moïse is the first graduate of the LSU Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation program, adding to her growing list of “firsts” in her many accomplishments. In the spring of 2020, Dr. Moïse became the first doctoral graduate of the College of Art & Design.

As part of the inaugural Doctor of Design cohort, Moïse’s doctoral research focused on the identity and role of the Haitian artist. Her dissertation and exhibition are titled “Mitan-Morphic: The Evolution of the Contemporary Haitian Artist in Relation to Trauma.” Her work showcased contemporary artists who no longer allow the lens on the Haitian culture to be out of focus or limited in its range.

Being the First Responders: On the 13th Year of Haiti Earthquake

It was an accident. Third-degree burns nestled into the toddler’s limbs, and her anxious caregivers debated over taking her to the hospital. After a few days of the toddler’s blood-curdling screams, they faced their fear of deportation, and took her to the hospital.
As recent migrants from Haiti, they not only fled a three-decade dictatorship financed by the United States, but they also arrived with papers in hand… 

HSA Congratulates Nathalie Frédéric Pierre

HSA congratulates Nathalie Frédéric Pierre for earning a National Endowment for the Humanities award! She was the onsite  chair for our 34th annual conference.

Military Intervention Will Birth Military Occupation

“Military Intervention Will Birth Military Occupation”
By Cécile Accilien , TRUTHOUT

Fear of a Black Republic: Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States

The emergence of Haiti as a sovereign Black nation lit a beacon of hope for Black people throughout the African diaspora. Listen as Dr. Leslie M. Alexander reveals the untold story of how free and enslaved Black people in the United States defended the young Caribbean nation from forces intent on maintaining slavery and white supremacy.

The Haiti Reader: History, Culture, Politics

A wide ranging discussion with one of my favorite scholars, Dr. Nadève Ménard. [A sprinkle of Kreyol; the rest in English. ] We cover The Haiti Reader and a separate essay (post-2010 earthquake) she wrote to her daughter, “My Dearest Dear Ana”.

While Haiti established the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere and was the first black country to gain independence from European colonizers, its history is not well known in the Anglophone world. As co-editor, The Haiti Reader is an introduction to Haiti’s dynamic history and culture from the viewpoint of Haitians from all walks of life.

Haitian Creole Maintenance In The Greater Chicago Area

This book examines the question of language maintenance and transmission by Haitian immigrants in the greater Chicago area based on fieldwork conducted in that community for almost two years. Essentially, this book addresses three main questions into which a few others are embedded: (1) Have the Haitian immigrants living in the greater Chicago area been able to successfully maintain Haitian Creole without shifting to English? (2) If so, how have they managed? And (3), if they have not been as successful, what have been the causes?

Haiti’s long and complicated history with international intervention

October 27, 2022: Dr. Robert Fatton “Haiti’s long and complicated history with international intervention” NPR’s Rachel Martin talks to historian Robert Fatton about ill-fated interventions in Haiti, which is now embroiled in a crisis that has the country on the brink of collapse.

More Foreign Intervention Won’t Solve Haiti’s Crises. Decolonization Will.

October 25, 2022: Dr. Cecile Accilien “More Foreign Intervention Won’t Solve Haiti’s Crises. Decolonization Will” on TruthOut.

The Fight for Haiti’s Future

October 21, 2022: Edwige Danticat “The Fight for Haiti’s Future” in the New Yorker.