VCU Department of History Alexandrian Society Symposium focuses on Haiti

By Mike Porter

The Alexandrian Society of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of History will present a daylong symposium that explores the history of Haiti, formerly the French colony of Saint-Dominique.

The discussion will focus on the Haitian Revolution and its impact on the Caribbean region and the United States, as well as its politics, society and culture from revolutionary times to the present.

“Slavery, Revolution and Freedom: Haiti And the Atlantic World” will take place on Wednesday, April 14, from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. in the VCU Student Commons Theater, 907 Floyd Ave. It is free and open to the public. 

Franklin Knight, Ph.D., Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History at
Johns Hopkins University, will deliver the keynote address titled “The Collective American Debt to Haiti.”

Bernard Moitt, Ph.D., associate professor and chairman of the department of history at VCU, will deliver a presentation titled “Slavery in Haiti and the French Antilles;” Laurent M. Dubois, Ph.D., professor of history and romance studies at Duke University, will present “The Revolutionary Abolitionists of Haiti;” and Jean Casimir, Ph.D., 2010 Mellon Visiting Professor at Duke University, will discuss “Well Being and Poverty of the Haitians in the 19th and 20th Century.”

Elizabeth McAlister, Ph.D., associate professor of religion, African American studies and American studies at Wesleyan University, will deliver a presentation titled “Revolutionary Religion and the Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History;” Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Howard University, will discuss “Shining Beacons of Freedom: Haiti and West Indian Emancipation in the Slave Americas;” and Asselin Charles, Ph.D., associate professor of language and literature at Mount Olive College, will present “Envisioning and Remaking Haiti: The Past as Foundation for the Future.”

The symposium is supported by the College of Humanities and Sciences, the Honors College and the VCU Student Government Association.

For more information on the symposium or other events, check out the events section of the department of history Web page at http://www.has.vcu.edu/his/.