14734: Schuller: proposed Haiti session at AAAs (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Mark Schuller <marky@umail.ucsb.edu>

Bonswa,

I am wondering what kind of interest there is on this list for a panel
reflecting about Haiti's bicentennial at this year's American Anthropological
Association meetings in Chicago.  I have contacted scholars from Haiti's
Faculte d'Ethnologie to present their research.

Here is a working intro to the panel:

2004 marks the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence.  Next year’s bicentennial
highlights both the singularity of the achievement of Haiti’s independence, the
first time in history when former slaves threw out their colonial masters and
established a free nation, as well as it highlights the ambiguities and limits
of that independence. Today, as two hundred years ago, Haiti’s position in the
world system is marginal, a product of racism and exploitation and the
development of capitalism and colonialism.  Cast in another way, Haiti is an
extraordinary yet all-too-common example of the awkward relationship between
global forces and local civic activity.

I have contacted several sections within the AAA and there seems to be interest
in such a session.  What i am not sure about now is whether there is sufficient
interest for a double session or simply a single session.

In any case, most of the sections need to know the participant names and topics
by the 15th of February.

Topics of papers can include (or have been proposed so far):

Structural adjustment
Grassroots organizations
relationship between foreign donors and Haitian NGOs
Role of the Diaspora in Haiti's independence
Cultural independence: kreyol, vodou, as resistance to U.S. hegemony
Race and racial politics as they are shaped / shape Haiti's position in world
system

If you have an idea for a paper, please e-mail me ASAP and we can discuss
timeline and strategy, and how the panel is shaping up.

Mesi.

marky@umail.ucsb.edu

-- 
Mark  :0

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