From the time it was the wealthy colony of St. Domingue, through the Haitian Revolution, and across the centuries into the present, New Orleanians have had an ongoing relationship with Haiti. From the early to mid-nineteenth century, Haiti was alternately portrayed as a place of fear and loathing on the part of those fearing a similar revolution in the U.S., or as a place of promise for people of African descent looking to it as a model of freedom. As these initial associations and memories have faded in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, New Orleanians have cultivated a new kind of relationship to Haiti as a land of origins and inspirations. It is a land of origins for the many New Orleanians with ancestry going back to the colony of St. Domingue, and a land of inspiration for others who see Haiti reflected in New Orleans’ food, architecture, language, religious practices, and culture. What is real, and what is imagined? We explore these questions by examining the intertwined histories of these two unique places in this month’s Gallier Gathering.
Make sure to start this event a few minutes early. Space is limited due to popularity, and it will fill up!
About the Speaker:
Angel Adams Parham is the Rev. Joseph H. Fichter, S.J. Distinguished Professor of Social Science and Associate Professor of Sociology at Loyola University-New Orleans. Much of her work is in the area of comparative and historical sociology of race, assessing the many ways that the past continues to speak to the present and urging us to contemplate who we have been and who we aspire to be as a national community. She is the author of American Routes: Racial Palimpsests and the Transformation of Race (Oxford, 2017), which was co-winner of the Social Science History Association’s Allan Sharlin Memorial best book award (2018) and co-winner of the American Sociological Association’s Barrington Moore best book award (2018) in comparative-historical sociology. She is also the recipient of LA Creole’s 2017 Recognition Award for “extraordinary contributions to the enduring good of our community as teacher, author, historian, and promoter of social justice in our community and beyond”.
She has been a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey as well as the recipient of a Fulbright grant. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses.
Pay What You Can: We have made Gallier Gatherings free to attend while in-person programming is paused, but we still have costs associated with putting on this program. We are accepting donations if you are in a position to support our museum. With this money, we will pay honoraria to all current and future presenters and cover overhead expenses such as Zoom and other technological services.