GBST191:
Haiti:
Past,
Present and Future
(draft v.3/22/13)
4 units, letter grade,
Lecture Tuesday 2-3:30
Discussion Thursday 2:00-3:00
Location: HMNSS 1406
Instructors:
Christiane
Weirauch (Entomology) and
Chris
Chase-Dunn (Sociology)
TAs: Mohannad
Awadalla ucr.director@uchaiti.org
and
Erwin Godoy <egodo001@ucr.edu>
This
course focusses on Haitian history, ecology, earthquakes, political economy and
public health issues in world historical perspective. Invited experts and community activists tell
about their studies and projects in Haiti and we examine Haitian political,
economic, and natural and health history.
Some of the students in the course are activists in the University of
California Haiti Initiative. We also examine leadership skills needed in
addressing poverty in the Global South. The course grade will be determined by:
Class attendance (10 per cent), Participation in discussions (10 per cent),
Weekly discussion assignment (15%), Midterm project (30%), Final
project (35%) due June 5.
Required readings: Jeremy D. Popkin 2012 A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Articles with an asterisk (* ) below are also required reading.
Course Website is on Ilearn. Seminar In Global Studies: Sr Sem 'Haiti:Past, Present & Fut 191 (001) (Spring 2013)
Lectures: Tuesday 2-3:30PM
April 2: Overview
of the course
April 9: Christiane
Weirauch (Entomology) "The natural history of
Hispaniola" * Reading on course web site under course materials
April 16: Mohannad Awadala (UCR Student Director of the UC-Haiti Project)
“The history of the UC-Haiti Initiative and its current projects” http://www.uchaiti.org/
April 23: Midterm project topic write-up is due
Christopher Chase-Dunn (Sociology UCR) “Haiti and world politics”
*read Jeremy D. Popkin 2012 A Concise
History of the Haitian Revolution. (whole book) and
Sidney W.
Mintz,
“Introduction
to the 2nd Edition” of Albert Metraux,
Voodoo in Haiti, and Sydney W. Mintz. Haiti” Chapter 10 of Caribbean Transformations.
April 30: David Oglesby (Earth Sciences UCR) “Earthquakes in the
Caribbean Region”
May 7: Robin Derby (History, UCLA) “Demons and
Trauma in Haiti’s Past and Present”
Prof. Derby’s project: http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/helping-haitians-learn-from-national-228697.aspx
May 14: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
May 21:
Dr. Ami Ben-Artzi (Santa Monica Medical Center UCLA) “Medical Issues”
Read “Building
a more resilient Haitian state”
May 28: Dave Pettersen,
and Kevin Bither, (Haiti Endowment Fund) “Project
Report from a non-profit NGO in the city of Hinche,
Haiti:”
June 4: Susan Zieger (UCR English Department) “William Seabrook, Haiti, and the Working Dead”
please read excerpt from The
Magic Island available on course web
site
June 11 Write-up of Final Project Paper is Due, Presentation of Projects to be scheduled week of June 10
Bibliography:
Charles
Arthur and Michael Dash (eds.) Liberte: A
Haiti Anthology, Princeton, NJ: Marcus
Weiner, 1999
Paul Brodwin, Medicine and Morality on Haiti. The Contest for Healing Power. New York: Cambridge, 1996.
Karen
McCarthy Brown. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn.
Berkeley: University of California Press,
1991.
Matthew J. Clavin, Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War: The Promise and Peril of a Second Haitian Revolution (Philadelphia: Univ. of Penna. Press, 2009).
Jared Diamond: Collapse - How Societies choose to fall or succeed. Viking Press, New York, 2005Chris Dixon, African America and Haiti: Emigration and Black Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).
Laurent
Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The
Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge: Belnap
Press of Harvard
University Press, 2004.
Paul
Farmer, The Uses of Haiti. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press. 1994
Paul
Farmer, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and
the Geography of Blame. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2006
Zora
Neale Hurston 2009 [1938] Tell My Horse:
Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. New York: Harper
C.
L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture And The San Domingo
Revolution. New York, Vintage
Books [1963]
Tracy
Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains New
York : Random House 2004
Stewart
King. Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free
People of Color in Pre-Revolutionary Saint Domingue,
Athens, GA. 2001.
J.
Christopher Kovats-Bernat. Sleeping Rough in Port au Prince:
An Ethnography of Street Children and Violence in
Haiti. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Elizabeth
McAlister. Rara! Vodou, Power and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora,
Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2002
Albert Metraux 1972 Voodoo
in Haiti. New
York: Schocken Books
Sydney
Mintz 1972 Introduction in Albert Metraux,
Voodoo in Haiti. New York:Schocken
Books
Sydney Mintz 1974 Caribbean Transformaitions. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Millery Polyne, From Douglas to Duvalier: U.S. African
Americans, Haiti and Pan Americanism, 1870-1954. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida
Mary
A. Renda, Taking
Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940.
University of
North Carolina
Press, 2001.
Karen Richman, Migration
and Vodou. Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 2005.
Jennie Smith, When the Hands are
Many: Community Organization and Social
Change in Rural Haiti, Ithaca:
Cornell
University Press, 2001.
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Haiti, State
Against Nation New York: Monthly Review
Press 1990
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing
the Past: Power and the Production of History
Discussion Section: Thursday Discussion Thursday 2:00PM – 3:00PM
Location: HMNSS 1406
-Students will be answering questions regarding the lecture
-They will be asked how the material covered can applied to the redevelopment of Haiti
-Final project will be discussed on the first week of discussion
-Project Ideas: Agriculture, Engineering (water systems, recycling, air quality), Education, Social Services, Business/economic development
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory; you are expected to attend both lecture and discussion. We will be taking attendance every day.
Weekly Assignment:
Each week we will post questions based on the material presented in the
previous lecture for groups to answer. Questions will ask you to discuss how
the material covered can be used to benefit Haiti. We are expecting short
answers (3 to 5 sentences) from each group, and this will begin week 1.
Participation: We expect active participation; ask the speakers, professors, and TAs questions. Be involved.
Midterm Project: The TAs will be booking a space at the Bell Tower (Date TBD). You are expected to break up into groups and work on a cardboard poster board (or other visual display) that you will showcase to the campus that day. The posters should be depicting a certain aspect of development (Public Health, Finance, Human Rights, Politics, Engineering, Food Development…etc). Your poster should include examples of current groundbreaking projects, how it can be implemented in Haiti, and what university students can do involved. The more creative the better, don’t feel limited to posters. Think about dioramas, flyers, multiple t-shirts…etc.
Final Project: You will break up into groups of three and design a potential development project. You will be presenting this project to the TAs during Finals Week. Your presentation must be 7-10 minutes long. As the quarter progresses we will provide a rubric that outlines how grading will be done. Your presentation needs to include all aspects of planning for a project. Think about how you would fund such a project. Which experts would you consult? Who would comprise of the team carrying out this project? Would you work with an NGO? Will it be lead by undergraduates? Graduates? Professional students? Or will only faculty be involved? The only guideline of your hypothetical project is that it must involve Haiti and you must base it out of UC Riverside (Example: you design a water purification project with faculty from the Bourns College of Engineering, and you carry out the project with the UCR Chapter of Engineers Without Borders). Use what you learn in the lecture portion to guide your project. Use your knowledge of UCR to help guide your design (what departments currently do work in third world countries? What student group could you partner with?
On the day of the presentation the TAs will act as a grant review board. Your group needs to pitch this project to our ‘foundation.’ You are presenting because you want us to ‘finance’ this project. The TAs will ask lots of questions, just like a real grant review board would do. Please dress appropriately for the occasion.