Event Details

Prof. Michel DeGraff is a leading linguist known as one of the most prominent Haitian creolists.  He is a professor at MIT and the co-founder of the MIT-Haiti Initiative promoting active learning in Kreyòl.

His New York Times opinion piece, “As a Child in Haiti I Was Taught to Despise My Language” (published in October 2022), will be an entry point to this lecture where he will provide an analysis of some of the long-lasting nefarious impacts of colonialism in Haiti, especially in the realms of education. The eventual objective is to enlist lessons from history in order to help usher better futures for those sufferers whom Fanon calls the “Wretched of the Earth” and whom Jean Casimir calls the “Malere” – better futures in Haiti and beyond.