Haiti Lab: Undergraduate Opportunities, 2011-12
* See Spring 2012 course listings for all three Humanities Labs *
At the FHI Humanities Labs, undergraduates are encouraged to participate actively as researchers themselves. Students can get involved in the Haiti Lab by enrolling in our group independent studies (1 or 1/2 credit unit) or courses. We also encourage students to participate in DukeEngage Haiti, an intensive summer program with rich opportunities for practical research and community-based service. Advanced students who have taken previous Lab courses/indepdent studies, participated in DukeEngage, or have the requisite language skills in Kreyòl or French may apply for research assistantships in one of the Lab's ongoing projects. Finally, eligible students are encouraged propose interdisciplinary individual or group honors thesis projects. Read on below for more detailed information about courses, independents studies, and DukeEngage. For questions about research assistantships, honors thesis, and other opportunities, please email Lab co-directors laurent [dot] dubois [at] duke [dot] edu (subject: Haiti%20Lab%20independent%20studies) (Laurent Dubois) and deborah [dot] jenson [at] duke [dot] edu (subject: Haiti%20Lab%20independent%20studies) (Deborah Jenson). For 2010-11 opportunity listings, please click here.
Group Independent Studies
The Lab is looking for students to work with us on three research projects this year. As in any lab environment, a lot of this work will have to do with gathering data and getting it into usable form. This potentially tedious, painstaking work can have big pay-offs down the road when we are able to analyze the larger picture with a degree of coverage and organization that would have eluded the individual part-time researcher. We will have periodic meetings where Lab directors and TAs discuss the significance of the data and help students to connect it to the state of existing scholarship in that field. Students doing independent studies on a given project will not only do their own blog, paper, or powerpoint on the material, but will be a part of the “Haiti Lab Student Research Team” co-author on potential submissions of the lab project in article form—although we can’t make promises on the particular timeframe for submission, or on the success of a submitted project as it makes its way through peer-review evaluation. For more information and details on how to sign up, please contact Profs. laurent [dot] dubois [at] duke [dot] edu (subject: Haiti%20Lab%20independent%20studies) (Laurent Dubois) and deborah [dot] jenson [at] duke [dot] edu (subject: Haiti%20Lab%20independent%20studies) (Deborah Jenson).
- Slave Nations (ethnic origins in Africa of slaves in colonial Haiti)
- Discourses of trauma in Haiti - see description from 2010-11 academic year
- 19th century Caribbean cholera - see maps and timelines from the Spr 2011 Representing Haiti independent study
Courses
* Note: Creole courses now satisfy FL requirement
Spring 2012
- Creole / Kreyòl Studies I (Jacques Pierre) ~ download course flyer
- Creole / Kreyòl Studies II (Jacques Pierre) ~ download course flyer
- Creole / Kreyòl Studies III (Jacques Pierre) ~ download course flyer
- Global Health and International Development Work In the Nonprofit Sector (Kathy Walmer)
Fall 2011
- Creole / Kreyòl Studies I (Jacques Pierre) ~ download course flyer
- Creole / Kreyòl Studies II (Jacques Pierre) ~ download course flyer
- Creole / Kreyòl Studies III (Jacques Pierre) ~ download course flyer
- History of Haiti (Laurent Dubois) ~ download course flyer
- Related: Global France (Laurent Dubois & Achille Mbembe) ~ download course flyer
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DukeEngage Haiti
This two month summer program "Building and Sustaining Healthy Families" will provide 8 students with the opportunity to live, learn, and engage with people of Leogane, Haiti by working with Family Health Ministries (FHM). FHM is a Durham-based, non-profit organization dedicated to developing long-term relationships with underserved individuals, families and communities to support their efforts to build and sustain healthy families. Currently most of FHM's activities encompass the areas of maternal and child health (cervical cancer prevention, nutrition, health education, etc.) in Haiti. In collaboration with local Haitian partners, FHM has been asked to build a health center that will address unmet needs of families. Students will be integrated into existing FHM program needs and will have the opportunity to provide service to the community by working in the cancer prevention program, developing educational materials, providing educational outreach to women, learning data collection and management skills, working on surveys in the community, and working with women's groups.
For more information, contact FHM Director and Haiti Lab affiliated faculty kathy [dot] walmer [at] familyhm [dot] org (subject: DukeEngage%20Haiti) (Kathy Walmer).
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Group Independent Studies: more details
Slave Nations
This project involves an analysis of the ethnic origins in Africa of slaves in colonial Haiti (Saint-Domingue) using a searchable database of ads for runaway slaves. Although colonial property holders and authorities rarely took the time to document the identities of slaves in detail, when slaves escaped, the ads provided the maximum detail possible on their identities to facilitate their capture and return. As a result, we have a unique window onto the men and women whose labor and skills made Saint-Domingue “the pearl of the Antilles.” The database we are searching is in French, so this project needs students with French skills. Students who have studied Central and West African history are also encouraged to participate.
19th century Caribbean cholera
This project has been through a successful first phase as an article and a digital map, but we are now undertaking an expanded analysis of the details of 19th century cholera epidemics in a variety of Caribbean islands. We are using searchable medical history and journalism databases and also print materials. For this project, we need students with skills in French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, and Portuguese.
Discourses of trauma in Haiti (a study of post-traumatic stress and trauma generally in clinical, literary, and religious domains). For this project we seek students who have studied or done laboratory work on PTSD, as well as students with Creole and French skills. We also seek students able to engage in literary analysis of trauma.
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Courses: more details
Creole / Kreyòl Studies I (Pierre)
Creole 1
An introduction to the essential elements of Haitian Creole or Kreyòl language and aspects of Haitian culture. The first of the two-semester sequence of elementary Haitian Creole or Kreyòl. the course provides practice in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing the language, culturally contextualized through units on health care, Haitian women’s rights issues, and unpaid child servants (restavèk). Students will acquire enough vocabulary and idioms to be able to interact with Haitians. Each participant will pick a theme to work on and write a two-page final project. The textbooks “Kreyòl Ayisyen pou Swen Sante (KAPSS)” and “Ann Pale Kreyòl (APK)” will be supplemented by texts retrieved from Haitian websites and Haitian newspapers. Copies of these texts will be handed out three weeks before working on them in class. Additional cultural and grammatical notions will be explored in relation to each lesson from KAPSS and APK dialogues introduced in class. Throughout the course participants will be exposed to different aspects of Haitian culture through documentaries, music, films, card games, and proverbs. No prerequisite. The course is taught in Haitian Creole.
Creole/Kreyòl Studies II (Pierre)
Creole 2
This second course in the two-semester sequence on elementary Haitian Creole provides essential elements of Creole language and aspects of Haitian culture. This course is designed to help students develop their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in Haitian Creole. Students will be engaged in different communicative tasks to assimilate the materials covered every day. The textbooks Ann Pale kreyòl (APK), Ti Koze Sou Istwa Peyi Dayiti (TKSIPA), and English Haitian Creole: The oxford Picture Dictionary (OPD) will be supplemented by simple articles retrieved from Haitian websites and newspapers to expose students to new words and basic structures which are not in the textbooks. Copies of these articles will be given to students three days before working on them in class. Additional cultural and grammatical notions will be explored in relation to each lesson and text introduced in class. Throughout the course students will be exposed to different aspects of Haitian culture through films, storytelling, games, music, and proverbs. Pre-requisite: Creole I or Haitian Creole for the Recovery in Haiti or a comparable level of previous Creole language experience, such as Duke Engage experience in Haiti or a familial background in Creole. The course is taught in Haitian Creole.
Creole III/Creole 63 (Pierre)
Creole 63
Check back for course number, meeting times, and other info
This course is the first semester of intermediate Haitian Creole or Kreyòl, intended for students who have taken Creole I and Creole II, or Creole for the Recovery in Haiti and Creole II. This course will help students move beyond “survival skills” in Creole to more complex social interactions and expressions of analysis and opinion. Intermediate skills in understanding, speaking, writing, reading Creole will be contextualized within a broad range of issues such as rural life in Haiti, religion, frenchified Creole vs popular Creole, through texts, poems, and excerpts taken from novels written by Haitian authors in Haitian Creole. Students will learn to carefully follow contemporary events and debates in Haitian culture using internet resources in Creole. For each text related to the above issues; idioms, proverbs, songs, paintings, and stories will be studied and analyzed so that students can get deep insights into Haitian culture, society, and religion. In addition, movies and documentaries will be watched to support learning. Furthermore, students will be asked to transcribe texts into Haitian Creole as well as translate simple texts from English into Haitian Creole and vice-versa.
History of Haiti (Dubois)
HST 299S.02 / FRN 252S.02
T 3:05-5:30pm
This class, open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates from all disciplines, examines the history and culture of Haiti from the birth of the nation in 1804 to the challenges of post-earthquake reconstruction. We’ll examine the history of slavery and revolution, political conflict, foreign intervention – notably the U.S. occupation of 1915-1934 – and dictatorship and struggles for democracy in the late 20th century. But we will also confront and challenge reigning views of Haiti, exploring it’s moments of economic prosperity, it’s significant cultural and political impact, and the richness and complexity of its religious culture. Readings will include history, anthropology, and literature, including work by writers Edwidge Danticat and Lyonel Trouillot. Students will have the opportunity to become co-editors of a book called The Haiti Reader (being prepared for publication by Duke University Press) which will present a range of short readings from and about the country. Discussions and the core readings will be in English, but students will be invited to work across languages as well: students enrolling through FRN 252S will work with French-language materials and work on translations from French to English, and those with knowledge of Spanish or Haitian Creole will have the opportunity to work in those languages as well. We will meet in the Haiti Laboratory at the Franklin Humanities Institute and take advantage of lab resources and activities, including connections to the Program in Global Health and the Law School.
Related: Global France (Dubois & Mbembe)
FRN 164D/History 165D/Cul Anth 156D/English 171FD
T/Th 10:05-11:20am
Recent events from the launching of a wave of democratic revolution in Tunisia, protests in France, and the controversy of the multi-racial French soccer team in the 2010 World Cup, have highlighted the many and complex legacies of the French empire in today’s world. In this course we will explore the 400-year history of French empire in the Americas, Africa, and Asia in order to understand the links between past and present. Our topics will include slavery and emancipation, colonial governance and anti-colonial history, citizenship and immigration, and the banlieue riots of 2005. Our readings will include novels and histories, essays and poems by figures ranging from Frantz Fanon and Aimé Cesaire to Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. We will also watch recent films, explore the cultural politics surrounding soccer in France, and analyze contemporary hip-hop music by MC Solaar, Assassin, and other musicians. The course is offered in both English and French, with a joint weekly lecture in English on Tuesdays and sections in either English or French on Thursdays. Students will contribute to the “Global France Blog” (sites.duke.edu/globalfrance), write short papers, and collaborate with the Foundation of Soccer Star Lilian Thuram on developing new approaches to anti-racist education in France. For further information email laurent [dot] dubois [at] duke [dot] edu.
Global Health and International Development Work In the Nonprofit Sector (Walmer)
GLHLTH 166
Check back for course number, meeting times, and other info
Explore issues of global health and international development work in the nonprofit sector. Topics include delivery of culturally appropriate global health assistance to low resource countries, challenges in working in developing countries, different approaches to development work, management principles of non-governmental organizations (NGO's), and monitoring and evaluation of global health program outcomes. Topics will be explored through lecture, discussion and small group work. Final class presentation and paper will focus on developing a case study centered on a select global health problem and the nonprofit organization(s) approach to delivering health care solutions.
