VCU Forums Focus on Haiti

By Mike Porter

Haiti will be the focus of a pair of upcoming discussions at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

A “Forum on the Disaster in Haiti: Early Reflections on Humanitarian Assistance and Beyond” will take place on Wednesday, March 24, at 3:30 p.m. in Ethyl Auditorium, VCU School of Engineering, West Hall, 601 W. Main St. A reception will follow the forum.

Humanitarian relief and social workers will speak about conditions in Haiti before and after the Jan. 10 earthquake. 

Jean-Andre Constant, a Haitian social worker working with children and families in Northern Virginia, will discuss violence against women in the post-quake environment.  Karen Smith Rotabi, Ph.D., assistant professor in the VCU School of Social Work, will speak about the plight of Haitian children displaced and “orphaned” during the earthquake and will discuss growing concerns over adoption fraud. Coco McCabe from Oxfam America, a nonprofit organization that promotes solutions to poverty, hunger and injustice, will participate from Boston via videoconference to discuss barriers and opportunities for humanitarian assistance.

Jason Levy, Ph.D., associate professor of public administration in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, and Benjamin Blevins, executive director of the Highland Support Project to support Guatemala’s indigenous communities, will discuss protecting vulnerable populations during disasters and the long-term implications of humanitarian assistance.

La Milpa-Americans Interest Group organized the forum. The Highland Support Project (HSP), the HSP Club, Association of Black Social Workers at VCU, the VCU School of Social Work, the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, the VCU Division of Community Engagement and the VCU Office of International Education are sponsoring the event.

In April, the Alexandrian Society of the VCU Department of History will present a 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;” Lauren 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.”