2026 Excavating the Past: A Biography of the City of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti

Abstract: This project will produce a public-facing online resource - a repository of scholarship, writing, visual and video representations, and varied primary sources accessible to a global public - that illuminates the history of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti a significant yet understudied town in modern world history. Haiti in global history is often imagined as two extremes - a utopian promise of abolition, of slaves wresting their freedom and establishing a republic, a beacon for pathways to dismantle colonialism or a dystopia imbued with violence, political chaos, poverty, and environmental degradation. These diametrically opposed representations center particularly on one locale – Cap-Français which served as the capital city of the Saint-Domingue colony in the centuries of French colonial rule. The port town was renamed Cap-Haïtien after the Haitian Revolution originated there in the late eighteenth century and the establishment of independence in 1804. These depictions are typified by the 18th century nomenclature of the city as the “Paris of the Antilles” with its economy and society fueled by slavery, rum, and sugar and its cameo appearance in the 2022 blockbuster movie Wakanda Forever as the birthplace and refuge of a future king of Wakanda, an African locale devoid of colonialism and mastering mineral resources and technologies. In Haitian accounts, au Cap, as it is called, is the cradle of the revolution that bore the nation, a restive site of coups and counter coup’s in the nation’s history of contested regime changes, and a city of poets and writers. Yet, decades of uncertainty have made it so that primary sources to map and narrate a biography of the city and its inhabitants have been lost and dispersed. In tracking down, sorting, and making visible sources, this project will serve as a foundation not only for a book project on the social and political history of the city, but also for future reference by scholars and students.
 

Research Tasks: RA will conduct research at: Stanford-based institutions such as The Hoover and Green Libraries; online research on the holdings of New York Public Library, Brown University Library, The University of Puerto Rico ; Archives of Overseas France; the British Library; Duke University Library; the Universities of Florida and Miami; and varied Catholic and Protestant missions. They will create a comprehensive bibliography and useable data base of publications, and visual, and audio sources in 18th-mid 20th century history of Cap-Haïtien.They will assist professor Jean-Baptiste in creating a website that charts the source materials, as well as findings from people and historical projects taking place in Haiti and elsewhere in the world on Cap-Haïtien. The site will serve as a hub to disseminate research and connect people wishing to conduct their own research.

Qualifications: Reading knowledge of French and/or Spanish useful but not necessary. Curiosity, tenacity, and attention to detail. Ability to analyze and synthesize qualitative, artistic, and quantitative information. Capacity to learn how to create a website, use geospatial and/or AI tools.
 

Base stipend is $8500 with up to $1500 additional stipend based on financial need.