#reference tools

For those who use watercolour, I found a website that allows you to accurately substitute colours from all of the different major brands and this would be useful for if your local store is out of your preferred brand , you will be able to pick the correct colour without running the risk of ruining your project with the wrong colour.

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To keep he hep to about current affairs happenings is an essential corridor of modern living. Information sources congenator indexes to individual newspapers and then many newspapers, bulletin summaries and summaries of television and radio broadcasts which are called sources re stylish events, anticipate for two enquiries and lexical meaning staff in locating and matured at hand recent development with knack and sans waste touching time. All modem libraries subscribe to these services and use them extensively in answering reference questions. The existing number of these sources is not adequate and there is need to pay more acclaim by repertory professionals, associations, and publishers. The most time-consuming job swank any reference section is to search party for current material re latest events. Quotidian newspapers, weekly communique magazines, radio broadcasts and telecasts are foundation sources for current affairs information. But their format, numerical abundance and the unstableness relative to information they contain make it difficult to retrieve information below sometime. Maintaining newspaper clippings again become strenuous if one attempts to be comprehensive and operculum all current events. The newspaper indexing services, news diaries, summaries of broadcasts and telecasts, etc., come handy for dig and exposure as to information on current events. Especially daily newspaper summaries are very useful for brief and final information. One could rely on them except resorting versus a reference for newspapers. The method apropos of accumulation of indexes anglicized adieu with a vengeance referring to these bibliographical tools are boon for reference immix and foreclose the time respecting readers and reference standing rigging in search of information on spread events. These sources are issued in loose panel format. The pages are numbered consecutively for each defective year and a good binder is in battle array en route to the subscribers so as to arrange the weekly fortnightly sheets harmony proper order. All this help twentieth-century locating current information with ease. As for the limitations of these indexing services, one cheeks indicate that these services are not in adequate numbers. The time-lag up-to-the-minute publication of news register in dailies and their appearances toward these wise tools is quite tidy and hampers providing efficient service. "Save and except the New York Times index, these sources are not yet available for on line search. Keeping Record of World Event is now also available on CD-ROM". It is, that being so, unforgoable to every record clerk to index events pertinent to his parent institution or discipline in which institution is interested in. <\p>

Here is a small glossary of key terms and concepts regarding Haitian history. Consider this page a work in progress. These are very basic definitions and we are not completely satisfied with them hence why we encourage you to use this page simply for reference. Feel free to contact us with any suggestions or clarifications.

C

Cacos: Cacos were “peasant mercenaries” that “based their partisanship on traditional kinship, godfather connections and other clientelistic relations (compèragé), and regional royalties. The reward for supporting particular candidates [who were interested in becoming President]…included the right to pillage cities, and town that fell prey to revolutionary struggles and loot the homes and properties of their patron’s adversary. Presidential candidates paid their cacos with monies advanced to them by supporters, who might include wealthy Haitians as well as foreign merchant-bankers.” For US Marines that intervened Haiti in 1915, the cacos were simply seen as bandits. (Source: Haiti and the United States: The Psychological Moment by Brenda Gayle Plummer)

D

Dechoukaj: “(Creole, from the French “dessouchage”) A dechoukaj can mean the destruction of a house, of an institution or the lynching of an individual. Historian Roger Gaillard (1992: 184-186) used the French spelling of the term (déchouquage) to describe the ransacking of Anténor Firmin’s house by a mob in 1902, after his departure into exile, and characterized a historical pattern designated by the term. In this case, the mob being unable to eliminate the enemy physically, it destroys what symbolizes him: his property. The mob that lynched General Oscar Etienne, who was responsible for the July 27, 1915 killing, then entirely demolished his house (“brick by brick” according to Gaillard, 1973: 88). However, it was in the 1980s that the term acquired its operative public use to describe the forms of blind popular vengeance that concluded periods of dictatorial rule. Carried out by mobs, often during riots, dechoukajs targeted macoutes in the 1980s and supporters of military regimes in the 1990s (Hurbon, 1987). The recurrence of popular justice suggests it is linked to the weakness of the rule of law and of citizenship in Haiti, where the poor refuse to trust a legal system that excludes them.” (Source: By Jean-Philippe Belleau in the Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence)

I

Indigénisme: "a cultural nationalist movement that resisted racism of the U.S. occupier [during the decades of the Marine occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934] by revalorizing the African over the European elements of Haitian culture…In his 1928 work of ethnography, Ainsi parla l'oncle, Price-Mars famously urged his compatriot to cease their “bovarysme collectif,” their imitation of all things European, and return their gaze to vodou-practicing , kreyol-speaking black peasantry as the source of a national identity and an authentic national literature.“ (Source: Migrant Revolutions: Haitian Literature, Globalization, and U.S. Imperialism by Valerie Kaussen)

M

Metayage: “The system of ‘metayage’ is a form of economic arrangement, similar to the sharecropping system, in which a peasant works on a piece of land that she or he does not own. The rent takes the form of cash and/or product, and there is a contract between the owner of the land and the direct producer. The terms of the contract as well as the nature and proportion of the rent vary.” (Source: “Gender and Politics in Contemporary Haiti: The Duvalierist State, Transnationalism, and the Emergence of a New Feminism (1980-1990)“ by Carolle Charles)

Mulâtrisme: Mulâtrisme was, in many ways, a mirror image of Noirisme. In short, this ideology sought to emphasize the role of ‘mixed-race’ elites in Haiti’s history, to justify their role in the country, and to assert their primary role in Haitian history. In the 1940s, it became personified with the presidency of Élie Lescot. According to many Noristes politicians of the 1930s and 1940s, mulatrisme had defined most of Haiti's political apparatus and this tendency had to be overturned (with the noirist ideology for a replacement). Thus, mulâtrisme inherently had (and still has) a negative connotation when referring to Haitian politics.  (Source "Mulâtrisme Explained")

N

Négritude: "Négritude is a cultural movement launched in 1930s Paris by French-speaking black graduate students from France’s colonies in Africa and the Caribbean territories. These black intellectuals converged around issues of race identity and black internationalist initiatives to combat French imperialism. They found solidarity in their common ideal of affirming pride in their shared black identity and African heritage, and reclaiming African self-determination, self–reliance, and self–respect. The Négritude movement signaled an awakening of race consciousness for blacks in Africa and the African Diaspora. This new race consciousness, rooted in a (re)discovery of the authentic self, sparked a collective condemnation of Western domination, anti-black racism, enslavement, and colonization of black people. It sought to dispel denigrating myths and stereotypes linked to black people, by acknowledging their culture, history, and achievements, as well as reclaiming their contributions to the world and restoring their rightful place within the global community.” (Source: Africana Age - Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)

Noirisme: Matthew J. Smith (2004) defines Noirisme as an ideology “which advocated total control of the state apparatus by black representatives of the popular classes”. This, as Smith points out himself, would be an incomplete definition of what Noirisme meant in Occupation and post-Occupation Haiti.  At best, the noirisme ideology should be understood as radical, psychological, cultural, ethnological and political ideology, which argued for black supremacy in Haitian politics (mostly as a response to what many saw as a mulâtrisme tendency in Haitian politics). While some appreciate noirisme to be Haiti’s form of Négritude, Michael Dash (2011) is right in assessing that most Négritude writers were quick to distance themselves from noirisme when they realized the extent of its radicalism. *Noirisme is often associated with the politics of François Duvalier (1957-1971) but, it would be a mistake to assume that all Noirists supported Duvalier’s candidature at the 1957 election, or that they supported his presidency afterward. (Source: Noirisme in Haiti, Part I and Part II)

P

Politique de Doublure: Was a political system mostly used in the nineteenth century by mulatto politicians whereby “controllable, preferably elderly and illiterate black generals were made president of the republic to create the illusion that the government was in fact reflective of the Haitian people and in league with their interest” (Source: Haiti: The Breached Citadel by Patrick Bellegarde-Smith)

T

Hello, thank you for your question! While this is not directly related to Haitian History, I will still answer it as it might help others.

Now, I have to say that I am only a Master’s student and although I’ve applied to a PhD program, my knowledge on the question is limited to my own experiences. Also, I should stress that I live in Canada and the process to applying to graduate school might be different in the United States.

So, here are a few tips that you may find useful when applying to graduate school in a history program.

Before Applying

1. Consider why you want to go – I know this may sound absurd since you usually know why you want to go to graduate school but, it’s possible that based on your chosen career, an undergraduate degree in history would have been fine. Just take some time to think about this.

2. Find a topic that interests you – While once admitted into a program, students are usually allowed (even expected) to change their application proposal, you should still apply to graduate school having a clear idea about what you want to study. History programs especially require that a Professor (and a graduate committee) supervise your work. It is important for the university receiving your application to know that they have a professional body capable of working with you for the duration of your MA thesis / PhD dissertation. This is also important for you as a student because there is nothing worst than having to complete a project on a topic that probably never interested you in the first place but that you chose not understanding that you were making a commitment. (Trust me, I know all too well what I am saying here.)

3. Pinpoint prospective schools – Different institutions offer different types of history programs. Once you have decided on a topic, it’s important to find the university that offers the best academic environment for you. Beyond having the right faculty, you also want to look for a school that offers financial support to students.

4. Look at every schools’ requirement for graduate studies – As I mentioned before, “different institutions offer different types of history programs.” While M.A. programs usually last for two years in most school systems, PhD programs vary a lot. Some universities require students to pass their comprehensive exams fairly early into their doctoral studies, others require it much later, as you must have guessed, this does have an impact on the length of the program. A PhD can take everything from four to seven years to complete (as a full-time student).

5. Look for a potential advisor – One common mistake that students make when they apply to graduate school is that they assume every instructor working on a field that interest them at a given institution can potentially become their advisor. There are a lot of different academic titles and many individuals that are not full-time Professors get to teach. As someone who is applying to graduate school, it is your responsibility to make sure to keep in contact with a Professor who’s functions include research and supervising prospective students (usually those that have Distinguished Professor, Professor or Associate Professor attached to their names, as supposed to those with titles such as Lecturer and Teaching Assistant). Here is a great list of “Standard Academic Professional Titles” by the University of Illinois at Urbana.

6. Do not overlook the importance of financial stability – Graduate school can be (is) expensive. (I say this especially for American readers.) I have seen many people who were talented but, unfortunately, could not continue graduate school because they could not offer it. I’ve hinted before that is was important when “fishing” for schools to look at those that offered financial support to their students. While financial support can mean loans, you do want to look for institutions that are generous with academic bursaries and offer T.A.ships (Teaching Assistant positions). It would be a shame to cut short your career in academia because of lack of funds.

7. Know the academic “jargon” – Aside from understanding what each academic title entails, you should also familiarise yourself as much as you can the language used in academia especially whatever will be useful to understand what is asked of you as an applicant and prospective student!

When Applying

1. Prepare ahead – Say you are interested in entering into an M.A. program in fall of 2016, now (as we are in the pre-fall of 2015) is the best time for you to start applying. Application for graduate school means requesting all your students transcripts, writing letters to potential advisors, writing a convincing research proposal, asking former and/or current Professors for recommendation letters… All of this takes time and it will take even more if you are interested in studying abroad, therefore, I strongly recommend that you start the procedures six months to one full year before the actual school start.

2. Look at every schools’ requirement for applicants – Beyond the structure of a particular program, it’s very important to understand what each school wants from its applicants. Perhaps the school that interests you wants three recommendation letters, perhaps it only wants too. Perhaps one school wants a cover letter and a research proposal, perhaps another school wants both plus an interview with you. Make sure you read and re-read precisely what is asked of you and keep track of the deadline for application.

3. Good writing takes time – As stated above, different institutions ask for different paperwork however if you are applying to graduate school and especially to a PhD program in history you can expect to write a research proposal. The research proposal is an important part of your application, you should do it with care. Not only do you have to convince actual academics that you have a project that is a) interesting b) achievable c) that you are ready for such endeavours, you also have to prove to the committee evaluating your application that you understand the historiography around your topic and that you can contribute something original to it. Try to do this in five pages!

Now, for M.A. programs you may or may not be asked to write a research proposal but you most likely will have to write a statement of purpose. (Again, if you do not know what is a “research proposal” and a “statement of purpose” in this context, this is your responsibility as an applicant to find out.)

4. Have your work revised –  If this blog post was my research proposal, the committee reading it would be very disappointed.  It goes without saying that the writing that is acceptable online is not in academia. As a prospective student and applicant, you are writing to Professors and hopefully, future peers. You have to convey your readiness for the task at hand. A statement of purpose or research proposal full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors will be judged negatively. Put every change on your side by proofreading your work, having a friend review it and hopefully, having it professionally reviewed by writer/corrector.

5. Apply and cross your fingers! :-)

Hello, just a small message to say that the CIDIHCA, a Haitian and Caribbean research center based in Quebec, Canada is back with a new website. While the site seems to be under construction at the moment and is almost exclusively in French, I suspect it will soon be translated into English, Haitian Creole and Spanish.

The CIDIHCA's current chairman is Frantz Voltaire who is a very well-known and respected Haitian public intellectual. Most people that work on Haitian studies will eventually visit or contact the center at one point in their research journeys. Aside from their important publications, at this blog, we have taken advantage of their impressive collection of historical photographs. *They have a morbid (yet great) series of pictures on the Duvalier era that I am browsing at the moment.

New English Resource for Haitian Studies: Port Academie Inc.

Hello all,

Many of you have expressed a wish to find more quality reading material on Haiti. We are pleased to inform you that an outstanding website called Port Academie Inc. was brought to our attention.

According to their “About” page, Port Academie Inc. is interested in creating “an open access digital library to make it easier for users to find research information on Haiti and increase readership to research content. The company serves as a catalyst for collaboration among libraries, publishers, research societies, scholars, students and developers, who are all vested in using the latest tools in publishing to increase scholarship to Haitian studies and research and make it more accessible.”

This resource is absolutely amazing and proves that technology is indeed changing the ways in which we interact, think and present History and more broadly scholarship. The website is also very useful to stay up to date with new research related to Haiti. 

Have fun exploring! 

After the fall of Jean-Pierre Boyer (following a "Liberal" Revolt), the subsequent independence of the Dominican Republic in 1844 and the Piquet Rebellion the same year, with a few notable exceptions, Haiti entered a period a severe political instability. While the country did experience some prosperity in the mid century and its independence was finally recognized by both the Holy See (1860) and the United States (1862), the situation eventually deteriorated by the turn of the century. Although some military generals did manage to seize power by force, few could hold it long enough to stabilize their regimes. This constant instability meant that while Haiti protected itself with many legislations banning the ownership of land by foreigners, this limitation could easily be overturned by ambitious merchants who, by this point, were marrying into Haitian élite circles and gaining more influence. Thus, Haiti's sovereignty was threatened by its weak position as a state. This sovereignty was constantly put in question by Franco-German-American interests (most notably, through a dispute for the control of the Banque Nationale d'Haïti). The issue was eventually completely "resolved" with a collapse of the Haitian political order, following the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam and the beginning of a formal American military Occupation on July 28, 1915.  

The Late 19th and Early 20th Century (1843-1915)

“The Army of Sufferers: Peasant Democracy in the Early Republic of Haiti” by Mimi Sheller 

Port-au-Prince au cours des ans [1804 - 1915] Tome II by Georges Corvington 

"The National City Bank of New York and Haiti, 1909 – 1922" by Peter James Hudson

Haiti, de sa révolution d’indépendance nationale aux interventions étrangères contemporaine by Leslie F. Manigat 

“Class Conflict and Diplomacy: Haitian Isolation in the 19th-Century World System" by Arthur L. Stinchcombe 

“Haitian Social Thought in the Nineteenth Century: Class Formation and Westernization" by Patrick Bellegarde-Smith

Haiti and the Great Powers, 1902—1915 by Brenda Gayle Plummer

“Against Dependent Capitalist Development in Nineteenth-Century Latin America: The Case of Haiti and Paraguay" by Henryk Szlajfer

Haïti : économie politique de la corruption : Tome 2, L’Etat marron (1870-1915) by Leslie Péan 

From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour and National Independence in Haiti by David Nicholls