Sa m fè

Although few Taíno survived the Spanish invasion of Hispaniola that began in 1492, memory of the Taíno persisted in independent Haiti (1804), nourishing constitutional revisions, the nation’s early periodicals, the country’s first serious histories, collections of poetry, stories, countless plays, and even botanical texts. My research provides an account of how and why Haitians have made claim to the Taíno at particular moments of history, and what these claims mean for a predominantly Black diasporic people.

In other conference presentations and publications, I aim to produce renewed critical interpretations of nineteenth-century Haitian novels. While non-fictional prose of the 19th century (both persuasive essays and histories) continues to receive scholarly attention, nineteenth- century novels are largely disregarded and have not yet fully contributed to our understanding of pre-Négritude Caribbean print culture.