Haiti/Dominican Republic

Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Report, 2024

• Agenda – LASA2024 Haiti-DR section business meeting

June 13, 2024

Attendance:

• In person: Sharina Maillo-Pozo, Rachel Afi Quinn, Esther Medina-Hernández, Masaya Llavaneras-Blanco, Elizabeth Russ, Jacqueline Lyon, Rosalba Cardozo, Camila Belliard, [two more]
• Virtual: Raj Chetty (co-chair, Arturo Victoriano (co-chair), Chip Carey

• Introductions – name, pronouns, affiliation, area of study (brief)

• Prizes 

• • This year’s prizes!
  • Anthology prize (4 submissions received)
    • Thank the committee: Aaron Coy Moulton, Charlton Yingling, Jacqueline Lyon
    • Awardees were from among submissions from 2021, 2022, and 2023
    • This year’s winner:
      • Megan Jeanette Myers (Iowa State University) and Edward Paulino (City University of New York/John Jay College).     
      • The Border of Lights Reader: Bearing Witness to Genocide in the Dominican Republic (Amherst College Press, 2021)
    • This year’s honorable mention:
      • Brandon Byrd (Vanderbilt University) and Chelsea Stieber (Tulane University), editors; Nadève Ménard (École Normale Supérieure of Université d’État d’Haïti), (translator)          
      • Haiti for the Haitians, by Louis-Joseph Janvier (Liverpool University Press, 2023)
  • Article prize (7 submissions received)
    • Thank the committee: Rachel Afi Quinn, Marianne Tøraasen, Rebeca Hey-Colón
    • Co-winner:
      • Jacqueline Lyon (California State University, Long Beach)
      • "Engendering 'Illegality': Blackness, citizenship, and Dominico-Haitian motherhood" (The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, vol. 29, iss. 1)
    • Co-winner:
      • Jeffrey Kahn (University of California, Davis).        
      • "Racializing Aesthetics: 'Boat People,' Maritime Worlds, and the Metonymy of the Haitian Sloop" (Current Anthropology, vol. 64, no. 2)
  • Isis Duarte Book prize (4 submissions received)
    • Thank the committee: Megan Myers, Ana Rodriguez-Navas, Pauline Kulstad Gonzalez
    • Winner:
      • Myriam Chancy (Scripps College)                              
      • Harvesting Haiti: Reflections on Unnatural Disasters (University of Texas Press, 2023)
    • Honorable mention:
      • Rebeca L. Hey-Colón (Temple University).              
      • Channeling Knowledges: Water and Afro-Diasporic Spirits in Latinx and Caribbean Worlds (University of Texas Press, 2023)
  • Guy Alexandre Paper Prize (2 submissions received)
    • Thank the committee: Christina Davidson, Richard Turits, Violeta Lorenzo-Feliciano
    • Raúl Zecca Castel (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocc)    
    • "Política de la representación visual: para una (est)ética decolonial. El caso de los braceros haitianos en los cañaverales dominicanos" (presented at LASA 2023; forthcoming in revised format in the Italian journal, Visual Ethnography)
  • General announcements
    • section members’ news that we can celebrate together!
      • Jobs! Dissertations! Publications! Grants! Tenure/promotion! Birthdays! Anything else!
      • Other announcements of relevance to section?
  • General discussion
    • Co-chairs for next year (both Raj and Arturo will be vacating position)
    • Initiatives
    • General direction of section?
    • Open discussion  

Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Report June 15, 2023

Latin American Studies Association

Summary of the section business meeting:

This year’s section business meeting was held in person and over zoom on May 25, with 10 members in attendance (4 in person, 6 virtually). After each member introduced themselves and their area of work, we re-introduced the changes to section prizes, about which we had already informed LASA: the new translation prize, the new anthology prize, and the new schedule for when each of those and the other three prizes (book, article, paper prizes) would be open. We then formally announced the section prize winners (see below). We recapped the general LASA sections meeting, then opened the floor for announcements from section members about recent accomplishments (publications, jobs, promotions, etc.) and upcoming events relevant to the section and its members.

We ended with an open discussion about various items, including how to organize a panel or panels for LASA/Africa 2023 that would feature work being done by scholars, writers, and activists in the Dominican Republic.

Section elections and leadership

Ramón (Arturo) Victoriano-Martínez and Raj Chetty will continue as co-chairs through LASA 2024. Chetty announced this will be his last year (he agreed to stay on for one more year after end of his prior 2-year term and now decided to stay through this 2-year term), and encouraged people to consider serving as co-chair in the coming year.

Activities and Plans: Coming Term

For 2023-24, one focus will be continuing to grapple with exploring how to build out the section membership, with particular attention to increasing the presence of Haitian Studies scholars. The section co-chairs are also going to reach out to lapsed members who have been regular members to encourage them to return to LASA and to the section. As mentioned above, we are also eager to facilitate greater participation by scholars and activists based in the Dominican Republic, with an initial effort being organizing for LASA/Africa 2023. Esther Hernández-Medina and Sophia Monegro both indicated willingness to help with that effort.

Section Awards – Haiti-Dominican Republic Section

1. Isis Duarte Book Prize

Winner: Lorgia García Peña, Tufts University (Princeton University, beginning Fall 2023)

Book title: Translating Blackness. Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective (Duke UP, 2022)

Co-Honorable Mention: Marisel Moreno, University of Notre Dame

Book title: Crossing Waters: Undocumented Migration in Hispanophone Caribbean and Latinx Literature and Art (U of Texas P, 2022)

Co-Honorable Mention: Charlton Yingling, University of Louisville

Book Title: Siblings of Soil: Dominicans and Haitians in the Age of Revolution (U of Texas P, 2022)

Committee: Sharina Maillo-Pozo, Mariana Past, Christina Davidson

The committee reviewed six books that were submitted for consideration for the prize, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinner and honorable mentions.

2. Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Article Prize

Co-Winner: Pauline Kulstad-González, independent scholar

Article title: “El negro detrás de la dovela: La interacción indo-afro-hispana en La Española del Siglo XVI a partir de la resignificación del material arqueológico de La Vega Vieja (1494-1564)” (Ciencia y Sociedad 47, no. 3, 2022, pp. 133-149)

Co-Winner: Marianne Tøraasen, Chr. Michelsen Institute & University of Bergen

Article title: “Women’s Judicial Representation in Haiti: Unintended Gains of State-Building Efforts" (Politics & Gender, 2022, pp. 1-32)

Honorable Mention: Médar Serrata, Grand Valley State University

Article title: “The True and Only Bones of Columbus”: Relics, Archives, and Reversed Scenarios of Discovery" (PMLA 137, no. 3, 2022, pp. 472-488)

Committee: Lissette Acosta-Corniel, Kathryn de Luna, Reena Goldthree

The committee received 13 submissions of articles published during 2022, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinners and honorable mention.

3. Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Translation Prize, translation of a book during 2021 or 2022

Winner: Lauren (Robin) Derby (UCLA) and Richard Turits (William and Mary College)

Book title: Terreurs de frontière : Le massacre des Haïtiens en République dominicaine en 1937 (Centre Challenges, 2021), edited by Watson Denis of the Université d’État d’Haïti

Honorable Mention: Ginetta Candelario, Smith College

Book title: El negro detrás de la oreja: Identidad racial dominicana, desde los museos hasta el salón de belleza (Editorial Universitaria Bonó, 2021) (translation of Black behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops, Duke UP, 2007)

Committee: Aaron Coy Moulton, Molly Hamm-Rodríguez, Victor Miguel Castillo de Macedo

This new prize received 2 submissions, which the committee reviewed, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinners and honorable mention.

Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Report

May 27, 2022

Latin American Studies Association

Summary of the section business meeting:

This year’s section business meeting over zoom was held on May 6, with 12 members in attendance. After each member introduced themselves and their area of work, we formally announced the section prizewinners (see below). Then opened the floor for announcements from section members about recent accomplishments (publications, jobs, promotions, etc.) and upcoming events relevant to the section and its members.

We then had an open discussion about various items: the work of the sections in LASA to organize an assembly to ask that the EC membership and conference costs, increase transparency, and strengthen the role of the sections in EC decisions.

Section elections and leadership

Ayanna Legros finished her term as section secretary, and no new secretary was elected. Raj Chetty finished his term as section chair. One person, as follows, volunteered to serve as one of the co-chairs:

- Ramón (Arturo) Victoriano-Martínez, section co-chair Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.Term 2022-2024

Arturo, Raj, and Ayanna are reaching out to current section members to encourage one more person to serve as co-chair alongside Arturo

Activities and Plans: Coming Term

For 2021-22, Ayanna Legros is continuing to run a daily writing group for dissertation writers, which arose out of the section and includes members of it, but also includes other dissertation writers. It currently has 7 people participating. The section continues to grapple with exploring how to build out the section membership, with particular attention to increasing the presence of Haitian Studies scholars. We are interested in continuing to strategize about how to involve more Haitian Studies scholars, in particular Haitian scholars, with an eye to increasing membership and participation by LASA 2024.

Section Awards – Haiti-Dominican Republic Section

1. Isis Duarte Book Prize

Winner: Rachel Quinn, University of Houston

Book title: Being La Dominicana: Race and Identity in the Visual Culture of Santo Domingo (U of Illinois Press, 2021)

Honorable Mention: Mariana Past (Dickinson College) & Benjamin Hebblethwaite (University of Florida), translators

Book title: Stirring the Pot of Haitian History (Liverpool University Press, 2021; translation of Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Ti difé boulé sou istoua Ayiti, 1977)

Committee: April Mayes, Ana Liberato, Chelsey Kivland

The committee reviewed seven books that were submitted for consideration for the prize, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinner and honorable mention.

2. Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Article Prize

Winner: Lissette Acosta-Corniel, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Article title: “Elena: Running to Dance and Other Defects in Colonial Santo Domingo (1771-73)” (Women, Gender, and Families of Color 9.2, Fall 2021)

Honorable Mention: Kathryn de Luna, Georgetown University

Article title: “Sounding the African Atlantic” (William & Mary Quarterly, 78.4, October 2021)

Committee: Megan Myers, Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, Hugo Harvey

The committee received 13 submissions of articles published during 2021, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinner and honorable mention.

3. Guy Alexandre Paper Prize, paper presented at LASA 2020 or LASA 2021

Winner: Emmanuel Lachaud, City College of New York

Article title: “Between La Vierge and the Lwas: Popular Spiritualism, Religious Nationalism, and Legitimacy in Haiti’s Second Empire, 1847-1859” (paper presented at LASA 2020)

Committee: Christina Davidson, Nancy Kang, Raj Chetty

Last year there was only one submission for this prize, so last year’s committee decided to have this year’s prize include presentations from 2020 and 2021. The committee received 3 submissions of articles (including the one submitted for consideration last year) presented at LASA during those two conferences, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinner.

2021

Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Report July 1, 2021 Latin American Studies Association

Summary of the section business meeting:

This year’s section business meeting over zoom was held on May 27, with 16 members in attendance. After each member presented introduced themselves and their area of work, we formally announced the section prizewinners (see below). Then opened the floor for announcements from section members about recent accomplishments (publications, jobs, promotions, etc.) and upcoming events relevant to the section and its members.

We then had an open discussion about various items: invitation for someone to run for the open seat as co-chair, possibilities for a new section award for mentorship in the fields of Haitian and Dominican Studies, events and activities being proposed by the section fellows: writing groups, ethnography/oral history working group, committee for memorializing scholars and activists in Haiti and the Dominican Republic who have passed on. We also decided to host a quarterly session in which the four graduate student fellows would each present (one per quarter) their work and receive feedback.

The final item was beginning to strategize now about how to involve more Haitian Studies scholars, in particular Haitian scholars, with an eye to increasing membership and participation by LASA 2024 in Paris.

Section elections and leadership

Dannelle Gutarra-Cordero stepped down from the co-chair position prior to the congress meeting, and we did not have anyone run for that open co-chair position. The two other officers are as follows:

- Raj Chetty, section chair Associate Professor, English Department, St. John’s. Term 2020-2022

- Ayanna Legros, section secretary PhD Candidate, History Department, Duke University. Term 2020-2022

Activities and Plans: Coming Term

For 2021-22, Ayanna Legros is running a weekly summer writing group for section members through August 1. Saudi García, one of the section graduate fellows, will lead a writing group during the fall. We will also run two of the workshops that will feature the work of two of the section fellows in the fall, and two in the spring. Finally, we will be exploring how to build out the section membership, with particular attention to increasing the presence of Haitian Studies scholars.

Section Awards – Haiti-Dominican Republic Section

1. Isis Duarte Book Prize

Winner: Chelsey L. Kivland, Dartmouth University

Book title: Street Sovereigns: Young Men and the Makeshift State in Urban Haiti

Honorable Mention: Ana-Maurine Lara, University of Oregon

Book title: Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic

Committee: Brandon Byrd, Jeffrey Kahn, April Mayes

The committee reviewed four books that were submitted for consideration for the prize, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinner and honorable mention.

2. Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Article Prize

Co-Winner: Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, University of California, Irvine

Article title: “Catching Air: Risk and Embodied Ocean Health Among Dominican Diver Fishermen”

Co-Winner: Hugo Harvey Valdés, Independent scholar

Article title: “Revisitando el punto de inflexión interamericano en la Guerra Fría: la crisis dominicana de 1965, la intervención de Estados Unidos y la Fuerza Interamericana de la Paz”

Committee: Ginetta Candelario, Georges Fouron, María Cecilia Ulrickson

The committee received 7 submissions of articles published during 2020, ranked choices, and met together to determine the prizewinner. The committee decided that because of the strength of the two winning articles, in lieu of one winner and one honorable mention, they would award the prize to two co-winners.

2020:

Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Report 2019-2020

1. LASA 2020 Business Meeting Notes Section Business Meeting commenced on May 15, 2020 at 7pm EDT.

The first order of business was the announcement of prizes (see below) and thanks to the members who served on the article, book and paper prize committees (Marisol Fonseca Malavasi, Carl Lindskoog, Elizabeth Manley, Christina Davidson, Scott Freeman, Toni Pressley-Sanon and Karen Richman).

Second order of business was the discussion of change of leadership. Elizabeth Manley and Karen Richman expressed gratitude and thanks for all the support from members over the past four years that they have served and indicated that it was a time for transition. They indicated that one member had been nominated for leadership, but that a second co-chair would be needed. In addition to Dannelle Guttara Cordero who had self-nominated, Kyrstin Mallon Andrews nominated Raj Chetty for the second co-chair position and he accepted the nomination. Ayanna Legros nominated herself for the new position of secretary, specifically with a focus on section expansion and graduate student support and engagement. The nominations were accepted; all three were elected by acclamation.

The business meeting concluded with an open discussion forum. Included topics were the possibility for a pre-LASA event in Vancouver, with member Arturo Victoriano volunteering to look into possibilities through his university, as well as continued opportunities to expand the section, the creation of a database of Haiti/DR scholars working in the field, the continued use of the section panel to highlight graduate student and junior scholar work, and the challenges and successes of teaching during the recent COVID-mandated transition to remote learning. It was decided that an additional meeting would be planned to continue the teaching and learning discussion. (Meeting held on May 28.)

Meeting adjourned at 8:45 EDT.

2. Newly Elected Leadership

Co-Chairs (2 year term)

Raj Chetty is associate professor in the English Department at St. John's University, specializing in Caribbean literature across English, Spanish, and French languages. He is at work on two projects. The first, On Refusal and Recognition: Disparate Blackness in Dominican Literary and Expressive Cultures, is under contract with SUNY Press's "Afro-Latinx Futures" series and studies the articulations between Dominican literary and expressive arts in the post-Trujillo period and conceptualizations of black and African diaspora. The second, The Entry of the Chorus: Performance Legacies of C. L. R. James’s The Black Jacobins is a study of C. L. R. James’s two plays about the Haitian Revolution and their theatrical afterlives, spanning the 1930s to the early 21st century.

Dannelle Gutarra Cordero is Lecturer in African American Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. She earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus in 2012 with a dissertation about the intellectual history of the Haitian Revolution. Gutarra Cordero has previously taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico and Virginia Commonwealth University. She has also been a Visiting Fellow of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, the Chair of the Postcolonial Humanities Working Group at Princeton, and the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed academic journal Recreation and Society in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Secretary (2 year term)

Ayanna Legros is an educator and scholar committed to highlighting and uplifting the narratives and histories of Afro-descended peoples, particularly those of the Haitian people. As a Haitian-American born and raised in New York City and the daughter of two migrant activists, she was inspired to pursue a PhD in History at Duke University in order to document, interpret, and contribute to histories of the Haitian people in the United States. Her PhD project entitled, Echoes in Exile: Haitian Radio and Transnational Activism in the United States, examines the political significance of radio in crafting a diasporic sense of belonging for Haitians between the 1960s – 2000s. She has been awarded fellowships and awards from Duke University, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Haiti Cultural Exchange, New York University, Northwestern University, Haitian Studies Association, Society for the History of Technology, and the Ford Foundation. She believes that research, writing, museum education, and public programming about the lived experiences of migrants will lead to a more empathetic world. Legros has collaborated with Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force, Museum of Modern Art, Nasher Museum of Art, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library), WBAI 99.5FM radio, and more. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from Northwestern University in African American Studies and International Studies and a Master of Arts in Africana Studies from New York University.

3. Plans for 2020-2021

A meeting for transition of leadership has been planned in early July to pass along section institutional knowledge, files, and ideas for continued advancement. Formal decisions regarding upcoming events and activities will be made by the incoming leadership, although will likely include plans for LASA 2021 as well as continued efforts to expand the section and support graduate and junior scholar work.

4. Awards

Isis Duarte Book Prize

Winner:

Jeffrey S. Kahn, Islands of Sovereignty: Haitian Migration and the Borders of Empire (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019).

Islands of Sovereignty by Jeffrey S. Kahn reveals how the U.S. government’s policing of migration from Haiti expanded the U.S. border, remade the Caribbean, and transformed the nation-state itself. Employing an impressive combination of ethnographic and historical research methods, Kahn locates the origin of the now widely-used practice of extraterritorial migration control in the U.S. interdiction of Haitian migrants and shows how the legal struggles around this policy tested competing tendencies at the very core of liberal constitutionalism. The result, Kahn reveals, was a new border, new geographies, and a spatially-reconfigured nation-state, the impact of which has been felt in Haiti, the Caribbean, the United States, and throughout the world. Kahn’s findings represent a major contribution to an interdisciplinary conversation at the intersection of anthropology, legal theory, geography, political philosophy, and history.

Honorable Mention:

Brandon R. Byrd, The Black Republic; African Americans and the Fate of Haiti (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).

The Isis Duarte book prize committee commends the work of Brandon R. Byrd in the 2019 publication The Black Republic. Beautifully written, the book serves as a reminder of the critical place of Haiti in so many of the important conversations circulating in the Black Atlantic across the 20th century. A narrative that unfolds clearly and yet with crucial nuance, this work of intellectual history serves as a key reminder of the deep roots of Black anti-imperialism and the many, even conflicted, ways Haiti has served as a symbol of freedom and liberation in the modern era.

Section Article Prize

Winner

Anne Eller, Raining Blood: Spiritual Power, Gendered Violence, and Anticolonial Lives in the Nineteenth-Century Dominican Borderlands (Hispanic American Historical Review)

The award winning article is an exciting demonstration of transnational perspective and scholarship on the island. It brings forward an astounding array of sources that reveal the center-island borderlands in the late 19th century to be a remarkable space of fugitive activity, and challenges the geographic and epistemological boundaries of the two nation states. Eller's focus on the spiritually grounded defense of autonomy, moreover, offers new ways of thinking about political authority in Latin American and the Caribbean that privileges the voices and perspectives of peasants and rebel leaders. We commend this article for both its breathtaking archival scope and analysis and theoretical innovation.

Honorable Mention

Maria Cecilia Ulrickson, honorable mention for Cultivators, Domestics, and Slaves: Slavery in Santo Domingo Under Louverture and Napolean, 1801-1803 (The Americas)

An honorable mention is awarded to Ulrickson's "Cultivators, Domestics and Slaves." Using notarial and ecclesiastical archives, Ulrickson charts how slaveholding and slave trading transformed under the influence of Louverture and Napoleon, and argues that slave owners created hidden slave markets and invented new ways of masking old forms of bondage. Thus, emancipation did not come suddenly to enslaved people on Hispaniola, but instead developed as a series of negotiations, contestations, and shifts that played out over time. In challenging how emancipation is conceptualized, this article will undoubtedly impact the scholarship on slavery and emancipation beyond Haitian and Dominican Studies.

Guy Alexandre Paper Prize (for a paper presented at the 2019 LASA conference in Boston)

Winner

Nancy Kang for “Ciguapismo: Rhina Espaillat’s Feminist Hermeneutics of Loss.”

The point of departure for Nancy Kang’s innovative paper is Espaillat’s characterization of her work of translation, not just between languages but also between home and diaspora, as “writing in reverse.” Kang interprets the poet’s statement in light of the image of la ciguapa, the mythic female figure whose backwards feet enable her to travel across borders of time and space. Especially when writing about Dominican women, Kang argues, Espaillat engages in an epistemology of ciguapismo, which Kang defines as“an interpretive faculty, an imaginative resource, and a humane impulse to excavate the mythic and world-building capacities of Dominican and Dominican diaspora women, aquí y allá.” Kang’s persuasive analysis is bolstered by her careful reading of the great poet’s oeuvre and interviews with the wise humanitarian, who is 88 years young now), and comparative scholarship on the metaphor of la ciguapa, not the least of which is found in the journal publication that won the section article prize two years ago by Ginetta Candelario.

Honorable Mention

Julie Sellers “From Radio Guarachita to El Tieto eShow: Bachata’s Imagined Communities.”

In this richly documented paper, Julie Sellers applies Benedict Anderson’s theory and scholarship on new, digital media to extend her unique scholarship on Dominican popular music, including her most recent (2017) book, The Modern Bachateros. Sellers elucidates the context and characteristics of the humble, melancholic bachata genre and the working class radio program that promoted it on the periphery of the centers of musical authority in the Dominican Republic. These slantwise assets were an ideal foundation for the successful reinvention of the radio program by means of creative appropriation of new media, into an online, diasporic show.

2019

By: Elizabeth Manley and Karen Richman, 5/31/2019

Meeting commenced at 12:35pm

Karen Richman and Elizabeth Manley welcomed all present and invited members to voice their concerns and desires for the section in the coming year(s).

Samuel Martinez opened the conversation, wondering how we might continue the model created by the Global Dominicanidades Conference (held on 5/23/2019 at Harvard) into future, with particular attention to its mentorship component.

Carlos Decena followed up on this issue of mentoring and growth by expressing both gratitude for the section and concern for the future. He noted the official section panel and queried if LASA is the right home for what we do as scholars of Hispaniola, particularly as it pertains to Afro-Caribbean issues. He suggested that while there is some marginalization happening, the structure of LASA also has considerable resources that would be extremely useful to us as scholars and as a community. In other words, that it was worth growing the section in order to take advantage of these resources, even if we continue to struggle with feeling at the edges of LASA. He also suggested creating more synergies with the Transnational Hispaniola collective through CSA, specifically alternating pre-conference activities between CSA and LASA. Finally, he noted that he could commit to running for a 2020-2021 co-chair position.

Cristina Davidson joined the discussion, noting that she found the considerable presence of Dominicanists at LASA this year (and in previous years) eye-opening. Like Carlos, she asked how we continue to work across the border of Haiti and DR and truly engage with a transnational Hispaniola model via LASA. She noted that the key tension in our work as a section was with that cross-island engagement, and suggested perhaps a H-NET network on Hispaniola as a way to increase communication. Or, alternately, creating an H-DR and linking it with already existing H-Haiti. She also suggested using technology to engage more scholars in the LASA conference, and generally taking advantage of online spaces for more effective communication.

Discussion continued relative to how to effectively incorporate a transnational Hispaniola model across institutional groups (LASA, CSA, etc.) and in our work. Decena noted that our presence here (at LASA, in panels, etc.) was an important first step; Davidson stressed also the significance of the section awards, particular for junior scholars and she strongly encouraged everyone to consider submitting their work in the section prize competitions. Raj Chetty suggested perhaps an every-other-year engagement with the Transnational Hispaniola collective. Decena argued that we needed to think about a transmission venue for the work engaged with the section panel. Discussion of the possible use of H-NET continued, with comment from Richman and Alexa Rodríguez.

Kyrstin Mallon Andrews joined the conversation to argue that we all need to work on proposing panels that specifically bring in Haitian scholars. She noted that we should reach out in some manner to Haitian scholars to make them aware of this section and the work we do. She also made a plea for more interdisciplinary panels and more anthropological voices. Chetty noted the media interest in Haitian American Ayanna Legros’ statement explaining why she identifies as an Afro-Latina, and Davidson offered that a panel on Afro-Latinidad (in the context of Hispaniola) could be a possible official selection. She also suggested Sophie Mariñez for the panel (in addition to Legros). A number of people in the group agreed that Haitianists are often not interested in LASA for a number of current and historic reasons, but many also agreed it was worth making the effort, particularly among the younger scholars coming up. Richman agreed, noting that she sees herself as a Latin Americanist.

Manley then asked what the younger scholars need and want from LASA and the section. Mentorship was clearly one of the most important things discussed by the members present. Also suggested were a pre-circulated paper workshop (pre-LASA or during), more feedback on work in progress, a welcoming and nurturing community / community building, and state-of-the-field reports. Decena then suggested doing a pre-conference with a workshop structure and a state of the field plenary. Someone suggested April Mayes as a possible person to foster a “state of the field” discussion. Decena also queried how such a pre-conference might be done with an explicit engagement with HSA. Richman mentioned that the HSA annual conference has always been open and welcoming to Dominicanists and was going to be held in Gainesville this year (October 2019), focused on climate and environment. Raj Chetty also mentioned ASWAD as a possible venue. All agreed that strong mentorship would be most beneficial to growing and strengthening the field.

Davidson offered an intervention, noting that again the conversation had strayed toward Dominicanist issues (partially because of the composition in the room) and that the group was no longer talking about Haiti and cross-border analysis. She argued that there were in fact two tensions – one would be growing Dominican Studies as a field (DS as “still becoming”) and the other the cross – field discussions with Haitian Studies. She exhorted us to be attentive to both tensions. Discussion continued about possibly using an online forum to build and continue these discussions of studies across Hispaniola.

Decena suggested the possibility of a “speed-dating” academic version (for research interests specifically) as a possible pre-conference workshop activity. Médar Serrata added that the workshop should also integrate scholars at all levels working on new scholarship. All agreed with the importance of increasing the disciplinary diversity of the group of scholars represented at any future events (particularly as noted by undergraduate student MacKenzie Isaac), as well as the need to work across disciplines. Rodríguez reminded the group of the availability of LASA travel grants (for Guadalajara); the section also might focus on raising funds for travel. A few minutes of discussion focused on dissemination of information via social media to expand membership. Members agreed that a committee for strategic planning for the section would be most useful moving forward and several indicated willingness to serve in such a capacity.

Richman and Manley indicated that they were willing to each serve for one more year as co-chairs. Present members supported the candidates for co-chair with unanimous acclamation. Richman and Manley thanked present members and indicated that their plan for post-conference actions would be to email all current, past and future section members with notes about the following:

1) call for leadership for next year;

2) constructing of a Strategic Plan committee;

3) soliciting input for committee work;

4) creation of an H-NET (possibly H-GlobalHispaniola) or other forum for the section; and

5) assessing interest in Guadalajara (LASA 2020) and plans for official section panel, other panels and pre-conference event.

Meeting adjourned at 1:50 pm.