Romance Languages and Literatures

Recent Articles and Book Chapters

“A Border Between Geographies of Grief: River Crossings and Crossroads Between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.” In Transnational Hispaniola: New Directions in Haitian and Dominican Studies, eds. April J. Mayes and Kiran Jayaram (Gainesville: The University Press of Florida, forthcoming, 2018).

"Naming, Claiming and Framing Marie Vieux-Chauvet: A Haitian Woman of Letters.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Vol. 16.1 (2017): 50-76.

"Memwa se paswa: Reanimating the Slave Past in Haiti.” The Psychic Hold of Slavery: Legacies in American Expressive Culture.  Eds. Soyica Diggs Colbert, Robert J. Patterson and Aida Hussen-Levy. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2016): 86-106.   

“The Myth of Diaspora Exceptionalism: Wyclef Jean’s Performance of Jaspora.” American Quarterly. Volume 66.3 (September 2014): 835-852. 

“Trauma Lost in Translation: Teaching Gisèle Pineau’s L’espérance-macadam/ Macadam Dreams.” Callaloo 37.2 (2014): 39-62.

“Rethinking Paradox: Performing the Politics of Gender, Race, and Belonging in Miano’s Ecrits pour la parole.” Journal of Romance Studies 14.1 (Spring 2014): 73-89.

“‘Un jour pour le chasseur, un jour pour le gibier,’ Beyond Truth and Reconciliation in Evelyne Trouillot’s La mémoire aux abois and Marie-Célie Agnant’s Un alligator nommé Rosa.” French Forum, Volume 38 (Fall 2013): 147-64.

"Toward a Victim-Survivor Narrative: Rape and Form in Yvonne Vera's Under the Tongue and Calixthe Beyala's Tu t'appelleras Tanga." Research in African Literatures (RAL) 45.1 (Spring 2014): 39-62.

“ ‘I Think I Was Rape’: Black Feminist Readings of Affect and Incest in Precious.” Black Camera, An International Film Journal 4.1 (Winter 2012): 139-60.

The Sway of Stigma: The Politics and Poetics of AIDS Representation in Le Président a-t-il le SIDA? and Spirit of Haiti. Small Axe 36 (November 2011): 62-79.

“A Travers l’Atlantique noire: l’imagerie de l’eau dans les textes des femmes haïtiennes.” Écrits d’Haïti: Perspectives sur la littérature haïtienne contemporaine (1986-2006). Ed. Nadève Ménard. Paris: Karthala, 2011. 163-76.

“Shaken Ground, Strong Foundations: The Legacy of Haitian Feminism,” Haiti Rising: Haitian History, Culture and the Earthquake of 2010. Ed. Martin Munro. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010. 79-86.

“Cracks of Gender Inequality: Haitian Women After the Earthquake.” Haiti: Then and Now, Social Science Research Council Online. February 2010.

“Shadows and Bodies: Edwidge Danticat and African American Women’s Literature.” Haiti's Chérie: A Readers' Guide to Edwidge Danticat. Ed. Martin Munro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010. 52-65.

“Terre et chair: Rape, Land, and the Body in Gisèle Pineau’s Macadam Dreams.” Reclaiming Home, Remembering Motherhood, Rewriting History: African American and Afro-Caribbean Women's Literature in the Twentieth Century. Eds. Marie Drews and Verena Theile. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2009. 29-50.

“Beneath the Layers of Violence: Images of Rape in the Rwandan Genocide.” Local Violence, Global Media: Feminist Analyses of Gendered Representations. Ed. Lisa Cuklanz. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. 246-66.

Recent Papers and Presentations

“Ti Fi at the Center: A Haitian Lexicon for Black Girl Magic,” Modern Languages Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, January 2019.

“All the Survivors are White: Celebrity, Race and #metoo” Modern Languages Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL, January 2019.

“Revolutionary Dreams and Haitian Girlhood.”  Columbia University, Institute for Research in African American Studies, December 2018. 

“Africana Sexualities: Conversations on Race, Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora.” Harvard University, Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Cambridge MA, October 2018. 

“​’How many cups of revolution?': Voice, Visibility and Stories of Haitian Girlhood."  Keynote Address, Caribbean and Diasporic Dialogues Conference, University of London, Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies, London, UK, June 2018.

“New Narratives of Haiti: The Power of Cultural Production.” Caribbean Studies Week, Keynote Address. Colgate University, March 2018.

“Intersectional Haitian Feminisms: Sonia Pierre’s Legacy.” Presidential Panel, National Women’s Studies Association Conference. Baltimore, MD, November 2017.

“Literary Pluralism,” Invited Plenary Participant on Gender and Sexuality Caribbean Studies Association Annual Meeting "Navigating the Intersections." Mérida, Mexico, May 2014.

“The Role of Literature and Film in Remembering the Rwandan Genocide,” Boston University Francophone Association (AFBU), April 2014.

“Suffering Bodies, Healing Texts,” InterVarsity Black Students and Professionals (BSAP) Annual Conference, Lesley College, Cambridge MA, April 2014.

“Memwa se paswa: Sifting through the Slave Past in Haiti.” Do You Want to Be Well Symposium. African-American Studies Program, Georgetown University, Washington DC, March 2014.

“The Language of Lakay: Home and Diaspora in Haitian Texts,” Mount Holyoke French Department, Invited Lecture, South Hadley, MA, October 2013.

“Beyond Phrases in a Box: Crossing Cultures and Creating Culture,” Milton Academy Invited Keynote Lecture. Milton, MA, May 2013.

“Imaginative Leaps: Rape and Narrative Autonomy in Haiti.” Invited Plenary Speaker on Haitian Women in Action, 24th Annual Haitian Studies Association Conference. York College, New York, NY, November 2012.

“Diaspora Disavowed: New Directions in Haitian Studies,” Africana Studies Department Colloquia, Brown University, Providence, RI, March 2012.

“Survivors and Citizens: Media Representations of Rape in Post-Earthquake Haiti,” Caribbean Studies Association, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe, May 2012.

“Écriture féminine ou écriture féministe?: Unpacking Haitian Women’s Writing,” Caribbean Studies Association, Le Gosier, Guadeloupe, May 2012.

“Diaspora Disavowed: New Directions in Haitian Studies,” Africana Studies Department Colloquia, Brown University, Providence, RI, March 2012.

“Histoire du mouvement contre la violence faite aux femmes en Haïti.”Organisation pour le développement, la santé et l’éducation. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 2012.

“Beyond Resilience: New Narratives of Haiti,” Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Black History Month Lecture. Woods Hole, MA, February 2012.

“Crisis Among the Living: Catastrophe and the Humanities in Post-Earthquake Haiti,” Africana Studies and the Fate of the Humanities. Brown University, Providence, RI, December 2011.

“Revolutionary Dreams: The Global Black Feminist Imagination.” Keynote Lecture. The Women of Color Collective. University of Washington, Seattle, May 2011.

“Performing the Haitian Diaspora: the Evolution of Wyclef Jean.” Black History Month Keynote Lecture. Clark University, Worcester MA, February 2011.

Public Radio International. WGBH. The Callie Crossley Show. Discussion about Lynn Nottage’s Ruined and Rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. February 2011.

“Hearing Haiti’s Voices: History, Culture and Catastrophe.” Weston/Wayland Interfaith Council Keynote Address. Weston, MA, January 2011.

Ruined, Talkback/post-play discussion. The Huntington Theater. Boston, MA, January 2011.

“’If I Was President’: Wyclef Jean, Performance and the [Haitian] Politics of Representation.” Mellon-Mays New England Meeting Keynote Lecture, Boston MA, September 2010.

“Battles on Bodies: Staging Rape and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Lynn Nottage’s Ruined.” Callaloo Conference, University of Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, July 2010.

“Beyala’s Le roman de Pauline, Sapphire’s Push: Black Girl Narratives of Dysfunction in the African Diaspora.” Invited Lecture. Walter Rodney African Studies Seminar Series, Boston University, April 2010.

“’We Have Stumbled, But We Have Not Fallen:’ Rebuilding Haiti in the Names of Myriam Merlet, Anne-Marie Coriolan and Magali Marcelin.” 12th Meeting of the Association of Caribbean Women and Writers and Scholars Conferences, Baton Rouge, LA, April 2010.

“’Your House is Your Island’: Narratives of Home in Haitian Women’s Texts.” 12th Meeting of the Association of Caribbean Women and Writers and Scholars Conferences, Baton Rouge, LA, April 2010.

“Can the Subaltern Survivor Speak? Documentary Film and Black Rape Survivors.” Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference, Berkeley, CA, March 2010.

“Contextualizing Crisis: Resilience, Recovery, and Rebuilding in the World’s First Black Republic.” Panel Series Moderator and Co-planner. Boston College, February 2010.

“Visionaries, Violence and Visual Images: Documentary Film and Sexual Violence.” Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora Conference, Accra, Ghana, August 2009.

“Subverting the [Sub]text: Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith, and ‘The Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere.’” American Literature Association, Boston MA, May 2009.

“Upsetting the Stigma: Contemporary Haitian Artists and the Portrayal of AIDS, The Spirit of Haiti and Le President a-t-il le SIDA?” Haitian Studies Association Conference, Montrouis Haiti, November 2008.

“Of Memories and Men: Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying and Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother.” 11th Annual Association of Annual Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Conference, Saint George, Grenada, May 2008.

"After #metoo, What's Next?:" WGBH Facebook Live, February 22, 2018.

“Local Haitian-American To Trump: 'Stop Talking. Stop Tweeting:'” WGBH Radio "All Things Considered," Jan. 12, 2018.

"Oprah 2020?:" WGBH TV, "Greater Boston," Jan. 8, 2018.

"Who gets to decide what 'assimilation' means?:" Public Radio International, Nov. 29, 2017.

On Conflict Bodies: New Books Network, Octboer 26, 2017.

"A Victory for France but the Spectre of Racism Remains:" WBUR 90.9 radio, May 8, 2017.