Final Report Summary - HAITI'S ENVIRONMENT (An Environmental History of Haiti (1492-present))
The project’s objective was for the Marie Curie Fellow (MCF) to train as an environmental historian with the best scholars in the field and to research and write up a monograph on the environmental history of Haiti/Saint-Domingue from Christopher Columbus to today.
The project began from June 2011 to June 2013 in Washington D.C and continued in Paris from June 2013 to June 2014. Most of the project’s time has been used by the fellow to train as an environmental historian (reading through a copious bibliography, taking part in numerous conferences, seminars, discussions, and one-to-one tutoring with the project’s advisors and publishing academic articles and books in the field of environmental history. The fellow also did considerable bibliographical work and identification of sources and experts relevant for writing and publishing a book on the environmental history of Haiti. This was mostly undertaken at Georgetown University and the Library of Congress (Washington D.C). The MCF was also able to follow the seminars of Professor John R. McNeill as well as numerous conferences, seminars and talks at Georgetown University, the Kluge Center (Library of Congress), at the New York Historical Society and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
The MCF also taught at Georgetown University the course HIST 400, Global environmental History (2 ½ hours weekly upper-level seminar for junior, senior and MA students) during the Academic year 2012-2013. He conducted research at the US National archives, Yale University archives, Harvard Business School Archives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archives, the Massachusetts historical society, The John Carter Brown Library, the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University Special Collections, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Louisiana State Museum and the Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. He also undertook a two-week trip to Haiti and conducted a number of interviews (oral history) with key people involved with Haiti’s environment during the past 40 to 50 years, during which he also visited libraries and academic bookstores.
The MCF also presented papers at the following conferences (selection): Sugar, Slaves and Sun: the rise and fall of the plantation system in St-Domingue/Haiti (18th-19th centuries), European Society for Environmental History biannual conference, Munich, 20-24 August 2013; Kluge Lecture: “Haiti’s environmental history”, Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. June 18th, 2013; Invited keynote speaker, roundtable on Trends in the environmental and technological history of France and its colonies, 59th annual conference of the Society for French Historical Studies, Harvard / MIT, Cambridge, 4-6 April 2013 (sfhs2013.fas.harvard.edu); invited speaker: Cultures of Energy Spring Symposium, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 19-21 April 2013; invited participant, round-table: The Evolving Moral Landscape: Literary, Historical, and Interplanetary Perspectives on The Environment, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 28 February 2013; "The naked pearl": Haïti as a cautionary tale of environmental degradation, Haitian Studies Association Conference, New York, 8-10 November 2012; Haiti's environmental history 1492-today. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 5 June 2012; Saint-Domingue, Nature and the Environment in the 17th-18th centuries, French Colonial Historical Society. New Orleans, 31 may 2012; Haiti’s Environment, (poster) American Society for Environmental History conference, march 2012; Encounters of Sea and Land: Earthquakes and Natural Disasters in Saint-Domingue/Haiti, 1500-2010, European Society for Environmental History conference, Turku, Finland, June 2012.
The MCF was also organizer for the panel: "Sugar, Cotton, Tea, and Slaves: An Environmental History of Plantations in the Caribbean, Hawai'i and India", European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) conference, Munich, August 2013 and co-organizer of the workshop 'Climate and Colonial History', Georgetown University, 6-8 June 2013 (with Franz Mauelshagen and John McNeill). He also published half a dozen articles aimed at the general public in magazines and newspapers such as Sciences Humaines, Le Monde, The Guardian, History Today, and gave radio interviews about his research for a state radio in Louisiana and for France Culture in France. He also contributed to the management of research activities through his work as member of the scientific committee of the Shift Project, and as trustee of the Association pour l’Histoire de la Protection de la Nature et de l’Environnement and the Réseau Universitaire de Chercheurs en Histoire de l’Environnement and as associate editor for the academic historical collection “L’environnement a une histoire” (Champ Vallon).
During the last two years, the MCF also revised, proof-read and corrected four books that have been published during the duration of the project: The Politics of Expertise: How NGOs Shaped Modern Britain (with M. Hilton, N. Crowson and J. McKay), Oxford University Press, 2013; Historical Handbook of NGOs since 1945 (with Hilton, Crowson and McKay), Palgrave, 2012; Une protection de l’environnement à la française? (19-20 siècles) (edited with C.F. Mathis), Champ Vallon, 2013 ; Des Esclaves énergétiques. Réflexions sur le changement climatique Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2011, as well as the special issue of the journal Ecologie & Politique, "Penser L'écologie en France Au XXe Siècle", Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, Mars 2012 (with C.F. Mathis). The MCF also wrote a new introduction for the second edition of his first book, Les Réfugiés Acadiens en France (1758-1785) : l’impossible ré-intégration?, re-edited by the Presses Universitaires de Rennes and currently being translated (under contract) in English (the book will be published by the University of Louisiana Press in 2014 or early 2015). The MCF also published six articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited books, edited several historical documents and published several book reviews in leading academic journals.
The two years at Georgetown have been very profitable to the MCF: it has resulted (beyond the publications and papers listed above) in a large network of contacts in the academic world of scholars working in the field of environmental history and a very positive teaching experience. The MCF has in particular benefited enormously from the close supervision and advice from Prof. John R. McNeill who has constantly been very supportive and very generous with his time; he has also benefited during the return phase from the constant support and encouragement of his French supervisor and scientist in charge, Prof. Geneviève Massard Massard Guilbaud (EHESS).
In summary: the first of the two objectives of the project has been fully attained. This is evidenced by the numerous publications of the researcher in the field of environmental history, the invitations received by the scholar to give keynote lectures at prestigious conferences such as the Society for French historical studies conference at Harvard in April 2013. This is also evidenced by the fact that the MCF has been head-hunted and recruited by an international conservation organization to become the new director of a project to set up a center for environmental education and training in the south of France.
The second objectives of the project (to write a monograph on the environmental history of Haiti) has however proven to be too ambitious in its breadth and chronological scope. The sheer size of the bibliography, of archives to be visited, of people to interview, of the various environmental factors to be considered, and the complexity of Haitian’s history over the last 500 years would have required at least a couple more years of research. The MCF however hopes to be able to finish this project at a later date.
The project began from June 2011 to June 2013 in Washington D.C and continued in Paris from June 2013 to June 2014. Most of the project’s time has been used by the fellow to train as an environmental historian (reading through a copious bibliography, taking part in numerous conferences, seminars, discussions, and one-to-one tutoring with the project’s advisors and publishing academic articles and books in the field of environmental history. The fellow also did considerable bibliographical work and identification of sources and experts relevant for writing and publishing a book on the environmental history of Haiti. This was mostly undertaken at Georgetown University and the Library of Congress (Washington D.C). The MCF was also able to follow the seminars of Professor John R. McNeill as well as numerous conferences, seminars and talks at Georgetown University, the Kluge Center (Library of Congress), at the New York Historical Society and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
The MCF also taught at Georgetown University the course HIST 400, Global environmental History (2 ½ hours weekly upper-level seminar for junior, senior and MA students) during the Academic year 2012-2013. He conducted research at the US National archives, Yale University archives, Harvard Business School Archives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archives, the Massachusetts historical society, The John Carter Brown Library, the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University Special Collections, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Louisiana State Museum and the Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University. He also undertook a two-week trip to Haiti and conducted a number of interviews (oral history) with key people involved with Haiti’s environment during the past 40 to 50 years, during which he also visited libraries and academic bookstores.
The MCF also presented papers at the following conferences (selection): Sugar, Slaves and Sun: the rise and fall of the plantation system in St-Domingue/Haiti (18th-19th centuries), European Society for Environmental History biannual conference, Munich, 20-24 August 2013; Kluge Lecture: “Haiti’s environmental history”, Kluge Center, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. June 18th, 2013; Invited keynote speaker, roundtable on Trends in the environmental and technological history of France and its colonies, 59th annual conference of the Society for French Historical Studies, Harvard / MIT, Cambridge, 4-6 April 2013 (sfhs2013.fas.harvard.edu); invited speaker: Cultures of Energy Spring Symposium, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 19-21 April 2013; invited participant, round-table: The Evolving Moral Landscape: Literary, Historical, and Interplanetary Perspectives on The Environment, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 28 February 2013; "The naked pearl": Haïti as a cautionary tale of environmental degradation, Haitian Studies Association Conference, New York, 8-10 November 2012; Haiti's environmental history 1492-today. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 5 June 2012; Saint-Domingue, Nature and the Environment in the 17th-18th centuries, French Colonial Historical Society. New Orleans, 31 may 2012; Haiti’s Environment, (poster) American Society for Environmental History conference, march 2012; Encounters of Sea and Land: Earthquakes and Natural Disasters in Saint-Domingue/Haiti, 1500-2010, European Society for Environmental History conference, Turku, Finland, June 2012.
The MCF was also organizer for the panel: "Sugar, Cotton, Tea, and Slaves: An Environmental History of Plantations in the Caribbean, Hawai'i and India", European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) conference, Munich, August 2013 and co-organizer of the workshop 'Climate and Colonial History', Georgetown University, 6-8 June 2013 (with Franz Mauelshagen and John McNeill). He also published half a dozen articles aimed at the general public in magazines and newspapers such as Sciences Humaines, Le Monde, The Guardian, History Today, and gave radio interviews about his research for a state radio in Louisiana and for France Culture in France. He also contributed to the management of research activities through his work as member of the scientific committee of the Shift Project, and as trustee of the Association pour l’Histoire de la Protection de la Nature et de l’Environnement and the Réseau Universitaire de Chercheurs en Histoire de l’Environnement and as associate editor for the academic historical collection “L’environnement a une histoire” (Champ Vallon).
During the last two years, the MCF also revised, proof-read and corrected four books that have been published during the duration of the project: The Politics of Expertise: How NGOs Shaped Modern Britain (with M. Hilton, N. Crowson and J. McKay), Oxford University Press, 2013; Historical Handbook of NGOs since 1945 (with Hilton, Crowson and McKay), Palgrave, 2012; Une protection de l’environnement à la française? (19-20 siècles) (edited with C.F. Mathis), Champ Vallon, 2013 ; Des Esclaves énergétiques. Réflexions sur le changement climatique Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2011, as well as the special issue of the journal Ecologie & Politique, "Penser L'écologie en France Au XXe Siècle", Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, Mars 2012 (with C.F. Mathis). The MCF also wrote a new introduction for the second edition of his first book, Les Réfugiés Acadiens en France (1758-1785) : l’impossible ré-intégration?, re-edited by the Presses Universitaires de Rennes and currently being translated (under contract) in English (the book will be published by the University of Louisiana Press in 2014 or early 2015). The MCF also published six articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited books, edited several historical documents and published several book reviews in leading academic journals.
The two years at Georgetown have been very profitable to the MCF: it has resulted (beyond the publications and papers listed above) in a large network of contacts in the academic world of scholars working in the field of environmental history and a very positive teaching experience. The MCF has in particular benefited enormously from the close supervision and advice from Prof. John R. McNeill who has constantly been very supportive and very generous with his time; he has also benefited during the return phase from the constant support and encouragement of his French supervisor and scientist in charge, Prof. Geneviève Massard Massard Guilbaud (EHESS).
In summary: the first of the two objectives of the project has been fully attained. This is evidenced by the numerous publications of the researcher in the field of environmental history, the invitations received by the scholar to give keynote lectures at prestigious conferences such as the Society for French historical studies conference at Harvard in April 2013. This is also evidenced by the fact that the MCF has been head-hunted and recruited by an international conservation organization to become the new director of a project to set up a center for environmental education and training in the south of France.
The second objectives of the project (to write a monograph on the environmental history of Haiti) has however proven to be too ambitious in its breadth and chronological scope. The sheer size of the bibliography, of archives to be visited, of people to interview, of the various environmental factors to be considered, and the complexity of Haitian’s history over the last 500 years would have required at least a couple more years of research. The MCF however hopes to be able to finish this project at a later date.