Upcoming Event
Unveiling the Legacy: Scholarly Reflections on Haiti’s “Double Debt” of 1825 Webinar

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Unveiling the Legacy: Scholarly Reflections on Haiti’s “Double Debt” of 1825
Webinar
Monday, September 15, 2025, 1:00-3:00PM EDT / 1:00–3:00PM Haiti / 10:00AM-12:00PM PDT / 11:00AM-1:00PM MDT / 5:00-7:00PM GMT / 6:00-8:00PM BST / 7:00-9:00PM CAT & CEST / 8:00-10:00PM EAT, EEST & IDT

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C4BmQxBKSwGLHtICiCvYrg
This International Center for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma webinar, held in collaboration with Kolektif Ayisyen Afwo-Desandan (Haitian Afro-Descendants Collective), NYU Law School Global Justice Clinic, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and the Anacaona Center for Human Rights (France–Haiti), will feature a distinguished panel of multidisciplinary scholars of Haitian ancestry, specializing in history, sociology, economics, and law. They will engage in a historically grounded critical discourse on the 1825 indemnity, commonly referred to as the “double debt” (a financial burden imposed by France to compensate former colonists and secure Haiti’s independence), which Haiti was compelled to pay France.The expert panel will examine the enduring and multifaceted ramifications of this debt on Haiti’s economic structures, political sovereignty, and social fabric. Furthermore, it aims to contribute to nuanced, ongoing dialogues on the historical and contemporary dimensions of reparations and social healing, situated within the broader context of justice for the Haitian people and their descendants worldwide.Simultaneous interpretation will be available in French and Haitian Creole.
Speakers:


Dr. Alex Dupuy
Alex Dupuy is John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.  An internationally recognized specialist on Haiti, he has lectured across the United States and abroad, has given interviews on local, national, and international radio and television networks, published more than three dozen articles in professional journals and anthologies, and six books, most recently Haiti Since 1804: Critical Perspectives on Class, Power, and Gender.

Professor Marlene L. Daut
A Professor of French, Black Studies, and History at Yale University. Most recently, she has authored The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe.  Previously, she authored Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution, which co-won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize.

Dr. Jean Marie Théodat
A geographer and professor at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the State University of Haiti. Holding a doctorate in geography, his research explores economic and cultural spaces, globalization, geopolitics, and regional studies of the Antilles, Caribbean, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, with a focus on slavery, colonization, borders, and creolization. 

Professor Jean Cassimir
Professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the State University of Haiti with a doctorate in sociology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he served as an official at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (1975-1988), and as Haiti’s Ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (1991–1997). His major works include The Oppressed Culture, The Caribbean, United and Divisible, and A Decolonial Reading of Haitian History

Professor Robert Fatton Jr.
Robert Fatton Jr. is Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He served as chair of the Department of Politics (1997-2004) and Associate Dean of the Graduate School (2010-2012). His numerous publications on Haiti include Haiti: Trapped in the Outer Periphery, and The Guise of Exceptionalism: Unmasking the National Narratives of Haiti and the United States. The Haitian Studies Association presented him its awards of Excellence, and of Lifetime Achievement.
Moderators:

Frantz Voltaire
A Haitian scholar, filmmaker, and author who has taught at universities in Chile, Mexico, Haiti, and Canada. He has directed and produced acclaimed documentaries such as The Paths of Memory, Port-au-Prince, My City, Maestro Issa, and A History of Banking in Haiti. Founder of Éditions du Cidihca, he is widely recognized for his contributions to Caribbean history, culture, and diaspora studies. 

Dr. Yael Danieli
A Clinical psychologist, traumatologist, victimologist and psychohistorian, Dr. Danieli is Founder, Executive Director and Senior Representative to the United Nations of the International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma (ICMGLT); Director, Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children and Past-President, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Posted on: August 14, 2025