Choices on Haiti!

Brown’s Choices Program has developed a lesson for high school students, drawing on interviews with two Brown faculty members Professors Tony Bogues (Africana Studies) and Patrick Sylvain (Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies). The Haitian Crisis: Thinking Historically challenges students to think beyond the earthquake, consider the role of Haiti’s rich history in the current crisis, and think about the global role in long term reconstruction.

"Ports of Sorrow," poem by Professor Patrick Sylvain

Brown University Haitian Creole language and culture Professor Patrick Sylvain is also a writer, essayist and poet. Professor Sylvain has been published in several anthologies, magazines and reviews including African American Review, Agni, and American Poetry Anthology, among several others. His latest book, Love, Lust & Loss / Lanmou, anvi ak pèdans, was published by Mémoire d'Encrier in October 2005. To listen to Professor Sylvain's interview on PBS' Art Beat Weekly Poem, please visit PBSNEWSHOUR. If you want to read more of his poetry, please go to the Brockton Public Library Poetry Series.

Letter from the Director on the Haiti Earthquake

19 January 2010

Following President Ruth Simmons’ call to respond to the Haiti Crisis, we have formed the Brown Haiti Crisis Response Committee, with faculty, students, staff, and administrators. The Committee is coordinating Brown’s relief efforts and will make recommendations to the President about future initiatives the University can undertake. We will work with colleagues in Haiti to design ways of raising money that can be immediately applied to address the most urgent needs, and to provide an avenue for all University communications through our website and email. The website provides a list of organizations accepting donations for the Haiti earthquake crisis, and one of the groups, Partners In Health, has a special webpage for Brown community donations.

Brown’s efforts will emphasize both short and long term goals. Overall we are guided by the understanding that this natural catastrophe is compounded by the human disaster of centuries of social injustice suffered by the people of Haiti. As a university with a scholarly commitment to the history, culture, and languages of Haiti, and as a university engaged in developing solutions to social challenges around the globe, Brown is already deeply involved in education about Haiti and ready to help rebuild Haiti’s educational system.

Our first task is to address immediate needs as dictated by the situation and people in Haiti, especially fundraising and communications. Next, in conjunction with partners in Haiti, we will explore ways to strengthen Brown’s enduring commitment to Haiti and Haitian studies, especially in the fields of education (including language), medicine, and community development. In all these initiatives, our goal will be to work with partners in Haiti to contribute to restoring the education sector there.

UN Photo/Marco Dormino

Working groups

We have formed four committees to carry out these tasks. Students, faculty, and staff, and other members of the Brown community: if you are interested in participating in any of these, please write the main email address and you will be put in touch with a working group directly:

1. Website/communication
2. Fundraising
3. Medical/health/disaster relief
4. Scholarly Task Force on Haiti

Haiti students, faculty, and staff

To the best of our knowledge, we have accounted for all students, faculty, and staff, and all are safe, though several have family in Haiti and have suffered losses. If you have knowledge of members of the Brown community directly affected by the earthquake, please share information about the support services provided by the relevant office at the University.

Emergency medical teams to Haiti

On 16th January, three members of our medical school faculty left Providence for Haiti: Dr. Stephen Sullivan and Dr. Helena Taylor will work with Partners In Health; Dr. Christopher Born will be with the International Medical Surgical Response Team.

Haiti Now Teach-In

After the semester begins, in addition to the fundraising, website, and medical initiatives, we will hold a Haiti Now Teach-In. Why has this earthquake been so catastrophic for Haiti? Why is Haiti the poorest country in the region? What are the truths and myths about Haiti’s history, society, and religions?

    Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross / Jan 16, 2010

Haiti @ Brown, Brown in Haiti

Haiti and Haitian language studies have an important place at Brown. We are one of the few universities outside Haiti to offer two full years of Haitian language (Creole) through Prof. Patrick Sylvain and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Prof. Sylvain has organized a mentoring program between Brown students and Haitian students at Hope High School. Brown will host the Haitian Studies Association annual meetings at Brown in November 2010. The John Carter Brown Library houses the second best collection in the world of materials on colonial Haiti and is digitizing its Haitian materials in partnership with Yelé Haiti. Brown’s Alpert Medical School has exchange programs with three medical schools in Haiti.

These collaborations and partnerships make it all the more important for the Brown community to step forward at this time and help Haiti in the short and long term.

Please check this website regularly for updates and information about Haiti Earthquake Response Efforts @ Brown!

Thanks to all for your commitment in responding to Haiti’s crisis,

Matthew Gutmann
Vice President for International Affairs
Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Professor of Anthropology

Barrymore Bogues
Harmon Family Professor
Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science

UN Photo/Marco Dormino

2010-2011 Cogut and Sarmiento Fellowship Applications Now Available

The Craig M. Cogut Visiting Professorship in Latin American and Caribbean Studies brings leading scholars from Latin America and the Caribbean to teach and conduct research at Brown University. Visiting Professors are based at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and teach one undergraduate course on Latin America per semester, advise undergraduate and graduate student theses, and give presentations in Center or affiliated departmental colloquia. Brown faculty members are invited to encourage applications and submit names of potential candidates to the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. A committee will start to review applications after December 30, 2009. More information is available here.

The Craig M. Cogut Dissertation Fellowship in Latin American and Caribbean Studies is a twelve-month dissertation fellowship for graduate students at Brown University who are in the writing stage of their dissertation. The fellowships are open to students in any department whose dissertation is directly relevant to Latin America and/or the Carribean. Applications for the 2o10-2011 academic year are due at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies no later than March 1, 2010. More information is available here, or by calling 401-863-2106.

The Honorable Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Fund for Latin American Studies annually awards a short-term $5,000 fellowship for a resident from a Spanish-speaking South American country to pursue pre-doctoral dissertation, post-doctoral or independent research at Brown University. The fellowship enables close collaboration with Brown scholars from a wide array of disciplines. The application materials may be submitted in Spanish. The application deadline for the 2010 Sarmiento Fellowship is February 1, 2010. More information is available here.

Spring 2010 Course Announcements

Cogut Visiting Professor Ruben Oliven will lead a course on The Making of Modern Brazil (LAST 1510J) on Thursdays from 4:00-6:20 pm. The class will analyze the crucial processes and meanings of the building of the Brazilian nation. Please see the course syllabus here. Professor Oliven, the former president of the Brazilian Associação Nacional de Pos-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ciencias Sociais and an anthropologist from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, is the Cogut Visiting Professor for 2009-10.

Joshua Tucker, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, will offer a class on Indigenous Music of the Americas (ETHN 1890D) on Tuesdays from 4:00-6:20 pm. The course introduces students to the music of indigenous communities in the Andes, the Amazon, the US, and Canada, exploring the relationship between performance, cultural identity, and social change. A flyer about the course is available here.

Faculty Honors and Awards

Nicolás Wey-Gómez, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, has been awarded the Modern Language Association's Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize, which recognizes outstanding work in the field of Latin American and Spanish literature and culture, for his book Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies.

Encountering American Faultlines: Race, Class, and the Dominican Experience in Providence, by Associate Professor of Sociology José Itzigsohn, has won the award for Distinguished Contribution to Research: Best Book from the Latino/a Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. Professor Itzigsohn presented his award-winning book for the Speaker Series at the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University on December 3rd.