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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Cultural Folk, Political Lore: The Politics Of Folklore During The United States Occupation Of Haiti From 1915 To 1934, Cheyla G. Muñoz Ramos Jun 2023

Cultural Folk, Political Lore: The Politics Of Folklore During The United States Occupation Of Haiti From 1915 To 1934, Cheyla G. Muñoz Ramos

Honors Theses

My project focuses on Haitian folklore in the early twentieth century in connection to the first United States’ occupation of Haiti. The United States’ Marine Corps occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. This nineteenth-year occupation brought violence and racial stereotypes towards the Haitian population, especially the peasantry. United States Americans coming to Haiti intensified these stereotypes. During this period, Haitian upper-and middle-class members heavily politized Haitian folklore and used it to defend Haiti against these stereotypes. Scholars have long discussed the anthropological works of ethno-anthropologist Jean Price-Mars as someone who tried to show the value of Haitian folklore, especially the …


The Borders Of Dominicanidad—Interview With Lorgia Garcia Peña, Nelson Santana, Amaury Rodríguez Jan 2020

The Borders Of Dominicanidad—Interview With Lorgia Garcia Peña, Nelson Santana, Amaury Rodríguez

Publications and Research

Dr. Lorgia García Peña is associate professor of Latinx Studies at Harvard University and the author of The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nations and Archives of Contradictions (Duke, Fall 2016). Lorgia García Peña’s book delves deep into Dominican society and history by dissecting foundational myths and state-sponsored propaganda. Lorgia García Peña also looks at Dominican alternative cultural production and the socio-political resistance found in performance art and Afro-Dominican popular religions. In the most recent roundtable installment from the Ethnic Studies Rise initiative that celebrates the work and legacy of García Peña's scholarship, translator and scholar Kaiama Glover argued that [Lorgia …


Mlk Book Read 2019 (Research Materials), Holy Cross Libraries Jan 2019

Mlk Book Read 2019 (Research Materials), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to the MLK Winter Book Read, based on the best-seller “Brother, I'm Dying" by Edwidge Danticat.


Tracing Dominican Attitudes Towards Race: A Historical Analysis, Marcos Polonia May 2018

Tracing Dominican Attitudes Towards Race: A Historical Analysis, Marcos Polonia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The common misconception is that all Dominicans are racist – that Dominicans live in a Fanonesque reality where we believe we are white, but we clearly inhabit black bodies. These attitudes permeate Dominican society from the highest echelons of power to the everyday experiences of Dominicans on the street. The notion that Dominicans are racist is widespread among Latinos and African-Americans as well. Recently, global attention was focused on the Dominican Republic as the country changed its constitution in order to prevent Dominicans of Haitian descent from becoming Dominican citizens. But, where do these notions of race come from? This …


Who Really Controls Haiti's Destiny? An Examination Of Haiti's Historical Underdevelopment, Endless Poverty, And The Role Played By Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos), Patrick Scheld Jan 2018

Who Really Controls Haiti's Destiny? An Examination Of Haiti's Historical Underdevelopment, Endless Poverty, And The Role Played By Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos), Patrick Scheld

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The presence of NGOs and development agencies is often considered an apolitical phenomenon, and that the very presence of NGOs within a country is a symbol of a global humanity in action; in short, NGOs equal charity which equals good work. Unfortunately, the reality is often much more complicated as NGOs can also be found to be self-serving, anti-democratic and strictly in pursuit of their next funding source. In this thesis I advance the central hypothesis that the international community’s continued pursuit of an NGO-led neoliberal economic development model has systematically failed to contribute to the sustainable development of Haiti …


On Making A Difference: How Photography And Narrative Produce The Short-Term Missions Experience, Joshua Kerby Jennings Jan 2017

On Making A Difference: How Photography And Narrative Produce The Short-Term Missions Experience, Joshua Kerby Jennings

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Short-term missions participants encounter difference in purportedly captivating ways. Current research, however, indicates the practice does not lead to long-lasting, positive change. Brian M. Howell (2012) argues the short-term missions experience is confined to the limitations of the short-term missions narrative. People who engage in short-term missions build assumptions, seek experiences, understand difference, and convey meaning, as a result of this narrative. The process of telling and retelling travel stories is integral to the short-term missions experience. Drawing upon literature on tourism, narrative, development, and photography, this study intends to evaluate the inefficacy of short-term missions through the stories which …


(Re)Imagining Haiti Through The Eyes Of A Seven-Year-Old Girl, Iliana Rosales Figueroa Jul 2016

(Re)Imagining Haiti Through The Eyes Of A Seven-Year-Old Girl, Iliana Rosales Figueroa

Journal of International Women's Studies

Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat’s new novel Claire of the Sea Light (2013) explores themes of love, loss, and death. The first character that is presented to us is Claire of the Sea Light, a seven-year-old girl, whose mother died giving birth to her and who is missing. It is at the intersection of this little girl’s loss that all the other characters and topics unfold. Madame Gaëlle, an upper class woman who has a fabric shop in Ville Rose, decides to adopt Claire in order to give her a better life. In this essay I demonstrate that Edwidge Danticat articulates …


Present Day Plate Boundary Deformation In The Caribbean And Crustal Deformation On Southern Haiti, Steeve Symithe Apr 2016

Present Day Plate Boundary Deformation In The Caribbean And Crustal Deformation On Southern Haiti, Steeve Symithe

Open Access Dissertations

The Caribbean plate and its boundaries with North and South America, marked by subduction and large intra-arc strike-slip faults, are a natural laboratory for the study of strain partitioning and interseismic plate coupling in relation to large earth- quakes. In this work, I use the available campaign and continuous GPS measurements in the Caribbean to derive a regional velocity field expressed in a consistent reference frame. I use this velocity field as input to a kinematic model where surface velocities result from the rotation of rigid blocks bounded by locked faults accumulating inter- seismic strain, while allowing for partial locking …


The Distorted Lens: Immigrant Maladies And Mythical Norms In Edwidge Danticat’S Breath, Eyes, Memory, Isabel Valiela Jul 2015

The Distorted Lens: Immigrant Maladies And Mythical Norms In Edwidge Danticat’S Breath, Eyes, Memory, Isabel Valiela

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications

The immigrant experience is riddled with the complexities of uprooting, and the challenges of fitting into a new environment where the issue of difference plays an important role. An immigrant’s life is multireferential in terms of how he or she views difference and is viewed as different. Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat’s first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory has instances of extreme disfunctionality due to the interplay of past experiences in Haiti and new encounters in New York City, and it includes many scenes in which characters express and negotiate different sets of cultural expectations, trying to reconcile their differences. [excerpt …


Derramamiento De Sangre En El Caribe : Una Guerra Racial En La Isla De Española, Jennifer F. Dalenta Jun 2008

Derramamiento De Sangre En El Caribe : Una Guerra Racial En La Isla De Española, Jennifer F. Dalenta

Honors Theses

The tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti have been longstanding. Not only are the nations divided by a physical border, but there are much larger cultural, racial, and political schisms that separate them. In 1930, when Rafael Trujillo assumed the presidency in the Dominican Republic, he did not hesitate to publicize his anti-Haitian sentiments. His effort to promote “Dominicanness” created a strong distinction between the Hispanic, Catholic Dominicans and the African, Voodoo worshipping Haitians. These growing tensions exploded into violence in 1937 when Trujillo organized the Massacre of Parsley, also known as the Cutting. During this period, nearly 20,000 …


The Politics Of Vodou: Aids, Access To Health Care And The Use Of Culture In Haiti, Catherine Benoît Dec 2007

The Politics Of Vodou: Aids, Access To Health Care And The Use Of Culture In Haiti, Catherine Benoît

Anthropology Faculty Publications

During the past few years, the AIDS campaign in Haiti has been targeting Vodou officiants and organizations. These awareness and training programmes in- form officiants about the transmission and prevention of AIDS, tests for HIV and anti- retroviral drugs, or even try to encourage them to become involved in a medical referral system. These culturalist interventions are grounded in an essentialist concept of culture that can have harmful effects on the targeted groups. The concept of culture underlying such interventions is deconstructed along with the categories of tradi- tional medicine and the ‘tradipractitioner’. An approach to public health is advocated …


Le Goût Des Jeunes Filles De Dany Laferrière : Du Chaos À La Reconstruction Du Sens, Nathalie Courcy Dec 2004

Le Goût Des Jeunes Filles De Dany Laferrière : Du Chaos À La Reconstruction Du Sens, Nathalie Courcy

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper analyses the way politics, society and the representation of speech is structured in Le goût des jeunes filles, Dany Laferrière’s fourth novel. How do the events told and the disorganised narration itself symbolise the unspeakable? Moreover, how does the characters’ speech rebuild the meaning of existence, and how does Laferrière see the future? Chaos, madness, all that overtakes or destroys the norm, anchors fiction in an attempt to reorganize reality and the imaginary.


Par-Delà Le Chaos : Aube Tranquille De Jean-Claude Fignolé, Lucienne J. Serrano Dec 2004

Par-Delà Le Chaos : Aube Tranquille De Jean-Claude Fignolé, Lucienne J. Serrano

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article analyses how Fignolé’s book puts into words an unbearable state sprung from the chaos of slavery. This is an oxymoronic writing experience, because how can the unspeakable be named? Writing is not thought here, but rather a driving force digging into an intimate movement of rebellion and using language in a glib form, free from conscious meaning and logic, in order to reveal a preconscious meaning. The writer then becomes an archaeologist of pain. He tries to transcribe the scream in splintered space and time, so that memory finds landmarks once again. Writing thus becomes an experience aiming …