Haiti in a Globalized Frame; International Conference; Feb 14-16, 2013
Program Call for Papers Registration Conference Hotel Tallahassee Contact Us

Pour accéder aux informations en français,cliquez ici

Confirmed speakers:

Arnold Antonin
J. Michael Dash
David Geggus
Dany Laferrière
Kettly Mars
Rodney Saint-Eloi

Conference artist:
Édouard Duval Carrié

Special closing event:
Dany Laferrière at 60, a celebration

 

Despite its long periods of economic and political isolation, Haiti has always been an important global center, and a particularly modern entity. Born out of the anticolonial struggles of displaced peoples, an amalgam of diverse languages and cultures, it is quintessentially and irrevocably a creation of global modernity. In the earliest days of the nation, Haiti was not considered by its leaders as an anomalous state or an accident of history, but as an integral part of the Americas and of the broader world. Haiti was the center of a new energy that upset established orders across the globe, throwing up a set of challenges, changes, and paradoxes, the effects of which can still be felt to this day. In Haiti's subsequent history, it has remained a global center, and its triumphs and struggles and their implications and meanings have always overflowed their immediate temporal and spatial contexts. Refusing to be seen as an aberration, a freak of history, Haiti and its meanings still exceed and go beyond its Caribbean borders, and have shaped the history and culture of the broader Americas and the world in significant, if often hidden and obscured ways. Moreover, contemporary globalization continues to have a significant impact on Haiti as it adjusts and responds to the political and social upheaval of the past decade.

This conference develops questions explored in the events organized by the Leverhulme Trust-funded Oxford Caribbean Globalizations project. Its aim is to bring to light Haiti's role in shaping history, culture, politics and thought beyond its borders and throughout its history. Importantly, too, we aim to understand how the broader developments in global history and associated processes of globalization have impacted on Haiti. The global frame incorporates other frames, including the Caribbean, the Americas, and the Atlantic World; and we also invite proposals that consider Haiti's position in any of these other geographical, continental and regional frames. Most generally, we welcome proposals for papers that offer new understandings of Haiti's place in the world, and the world's place in Haiti. The conference is interdisciplinary, and we encourage proposals for single papers and panels that offer innovative new approaches that relate to the following, non-exhaustive list of possible themes:

  • The Revolution as a global event
  • Haiti's natural history and environmentalism
  • Aristide and the Global Left
  • Haitian music in the diaspora
  • Haitian religion in the diaspora
  • Global religious movements in Haiti
  • Haitian visual art and its global presence
  • Global commerce and its effects on Haiti
  • Haiti in global literature
  • Haiti in travel writing
  • Haiti in film
  • Global aid organizations and Haiti
  • Global responses to disasters in Haiti
  • The 2010 earthquake and its after-effects

 

For further information, please contact Martin Munro at mmunro@fsu.edu or Charles Forsdick at C.Forsdick@liverpool.ac.uk.

 
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