RESEARCH

My dissertation research explores Black laborers’ relationships to the natural environment on 20th century Dominican sugar cane plantations. Considering the influence of the United States’ military occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, I examine the gendered labor of spiritual ritual, plot gardening, and herbal medicine as community sustaining practices, in my theorization of Black Ecological survival. I rethink the temporal boundaries of the Dominican sugar plantation, and explore the relationship between Haitian sugar plantation labor, Dominican economic and cultural development, and US imperial influence. I examine the historic Radio Haiti archives and contemporary feminist Caribbean literature to understand Black ecological survival on the plantation. My analysis of 21st century fictive retellings and imaginings of cane laborers’ experiences complements my archival research, revealing the enduring significance of Black environmental relationships. For my dissertation project, I have received funding through the Tinker Field Research Grant, the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, and the Society of Women Geographers.

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 My MA thesis analyzed the neoliberal tourist industry to understand Spanish colonial influence on Dominican national identity and its relationship to 20th century US imperial projects on the island. My project was funded by the John L. Warfield Center of African and African American Studies, and I have published a methodological article on critical archive studies based on my research linked here published in Emotion, Space, and Society. For my  MA Thesis, I was awarded UT's Outstanding Master's Thesis Award.

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