HNPG012:
Haiti:
Past,
Present and Future
(draft
v.4/16/12)
4 units, letter grade,
Lecture Tuesday 2-3:30
Discussion Thursday 2:00-3:00
Honors Conference Room, 2316 Olmstead Hall
Instructors:
Christiane
Weirauch (Entomology) and
Chris
Chase-Dunn (Sociology)
TAs: Mohannad Awadalla and Greg Petterson
Location: University Honors Program Seminar Room, 2316 Olmsted Hall
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: Paul Farmer, The Uses of Haiti. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press. 1994 (on reserve and used copies available in the Campus Store) earlier editions are fine. And articles with an asterisk (* ) below.
Lectures: Tuesday 2-3:30PM
April 3: Josiah
Bruny, (Music Changing Lives) “From Tents to Domes”
April 10: Christiane
Weirauch (Entomology) "The natural history of Hispaniola" * Reading
on course web site under course materials
April 17: Paul Ryer, (Anthropology UCR) "The Present in the Past: Caribbean Revolutions from Haiti to Cuba"
*Read Michel-Rolph Troillot, An Unthinkable History: The Haitian Revolution as a non-event” Under Course Materials on Ilearn
April
24: Midterm project topic
write-up is due
Christopher Chase-Dunn (Sociology UCR) “Haiti and world politics”
*read Paul Farmer, The Uses of Haiti (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.
May 1:David
Oglesby (Earth Sciences UCR) “Earthquakes in the Caribbean Region”
May 8: Robin Derby (History, UCLA) “Demons and
Trauma in Haiti’s Past and Present”: May 15: Christopher Amrhein
(Environmental Sciences UCR) “Problems with agriculture on tropical soils”
May
22: Dr. Ami Ben-Artzi (Santa Monica Medical Center UCLA)
“Medical Issues”
Read “Building
a more resilient Haitian state”
May 29 : Dave Pettersen, and Kevin Bither, (Haiti Endowment Fund) “Project Report
from a non-profit NGO in the city of Hinche, Haiti:”
June 5: Amalia
Cabezas (Womens Studies UCR) “Human Trafficking in Hispaniola”
June 12 Write-up
of Final Project Paper is Due, Presentation
of Projects to be scheduled week of June
11
Bibliography:
Charles
Arthur and Michael Dash (eds.), Libete: 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
Honors Conference Room, 2316 Olmstead Hall
-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.