2020 Theses Doctoral

Place-Making in a Fractured Academic Landscape: Haitian Intellectual Exile and Academic Diaspora Homecomings

Dubuisson, Darlene Elizabeth

Based on fieldwork conducted in metropolitan Port-au-Prince between 2013 and 2018, this dissertation is a multivocal ethnography that explores Haitian intellectual exile and academic diaspora homecomings after two would-be moments of social transformation in Haiti: post-Duvalier (1986-) and post-earthquake (2010-), respectively. For those in my study, return transformed but did not end their displacement. The dissertation argues that returnees experienced different homecomings depending on when they came back and the social class position they occupied when they left. It also contends that despite their internal displacement, returnees worked to create “place” both within and beyond Haiti’s fractured academic landscape.